Breathe
by StarryEyedLight
Summary: Lightning rejoining the group lifted a weight off of everyone's shoulders. But where is Hope? While that becomes the main focus, distractions arise for the sergeant. Her attraction to Fang grows, but a tension between her and Snow threatens the peace.
1. Promise

_I am not nearly as cruel as you all assumed. Here is the next installment, just as I intended when I ended Closer on such a cliffhanger. I took a small break to dilly around with Because I Can Make You Smile, which is still in the works for those of you who enjoyed it. But it seems I can't get this particular tale out of my head, so here it is for your viewing enjoyment. :3  
_

_My trusty beta has returned! Thanks to SinisterPurr!_

**Breathe**

**Promise**

"_Promise me you'll find a way to turn her back!"_

Where do you run when even the walls betray you? When that vast open plain doesn't seem like nearly enough space to escape the fate you bestowed upon yourself? The fal'Cie had nothing to do with the promise Snow took upon himself that moment, when Hope looked at him with empty eyes and a broken heart. Their leader was nothing but an ornament now, on display as a reminder how they had failed.

How _he _had failed.

The airship hummed to life, engines finally able to convert the energy into pure power to lift the tank off the ground. Snow eyes were downcast, ignoring the rumbling that echoed through the ship as Sazh took them up. That woman, her airship had vanished, taking the boy to some place they couldn't follow.

Not until he fulfilled his promise.

That wasn't true, he could go, they all could, somehow rescue Hope from the woman's clutches. But what would the boy do? He would look at them all, life shattered as the woman who took up a sort of parental figure had been turned to glass. Distantly Snow Villiers found himself wondering if Lightning was even asleep, that maybe she was truly dead.

_Where's your hope now?_

Snow instinctively reached for the crystal teardrop. He clung to it, almost bitterly.

_I need help. _He begged; he wasn't even sure he was asking Serah; just anybody who would listen. _Tell me how to save her, tell me where Hope is… _

Fal'Cie didn't care about humans and the Maker had long left. Who was there to pray to? To Serah? As much as Snow loved her, what could the girl do? She was on the _Lindblum, _and she was as active as her older sister at the moment. Neither could come running to the rescue and the thought of that terrified the man.

_No one is coming to bail you out of trouble, you got yourself into this._

He had friends, but Vanille had been too busy crying to be any use. Fang hadn't said a word, she had disappeared and Sazh had flown them out of there. The only talking there had been was when the four of them struggling to bring the crystal formation into the hold of the airship.

There were quiet footsteps, Snow looked up to see Vanille in the doorway. Her eyes were red and she was sniffling as her eyes slowly rose from the floor to the statue.

"At least…" She tried to be optimistic. "She's sleeping… She never get enough sleep, you know?"

Snow looked at the ground, not even managing a chuckle. "Yeah…"

"It's not your fault." Vanille spoke, tears beginning again. "No one knew what was happening…"

"Lightning is crystal." Snow snarled, eyes narrowing and his tone turning surprisingly cold. He remembered what Serah had told him when he was unconscious, how one of them would die without his aid. Was she referring to the battle, or this catastrophe? "It's my fault."

"No," the girl protested, almost desperately. "It's that woman's fault… She did this, not us. We were just trying to get away."

"Vanille," The man growled, eyes narrowing. "I don't want to hear it."

"Why?" Vanille snapped back, hands forming into fists. "Would you rather blame yourself for something beyond your control?"

"Maybe." He grumbled, looking away shamefully. "Maybe I'm sick of being so fucking positive, did you ever think of that?"

The look in the man's eyes was as cold as Shiva's blizzard from before. He stood up slowly, eyes carving angrily into Vanille's frightened soul.

"Maybe I want to be damn well realistic, Lightning is **gone.** She's in a crystal slumber, like her sister. We don't have our leader anymore, and Hope was just kidnapped by some woman wielding powers beyond our imagination." He spat bitterly, eyes gazing at the crystal.

_I failed you and I failed your sister. If we ever meet again, I hope you can forgive me. _

"It's too easy to give up." Vanille bit her lip, wanting to run from the looming man. "You made a promise, we all did."

"Tch…" Snow replied; surprising himself that such a Lightning thing to do came from him. "I'm good at making promises…" He murmured. "I'm even better at breaking them."

"_Snow."_

The blond perked up, hearing such a faint sweet voice in his hears. Was it Serah trying to reach him? She wouldn't stand for him being this negative or rude; she'd probably apologize for him before she slapped him. He almost smirked at the thought of her profusely apologize and glaring death on him at the same time.

Vanille watched him warily, seeing the confusion and sorrow sweep over his ice-like irises before vanishing. She bit her lip, approaching carefully before placing a gentle hand on his arm. His eyes focused back on her.

"Please, Snow," she smiled weakly. "We need to keep our promise."

He huffed, but didn't pull his arm away.

"I…" He began to walk towards the side room. "I just need to think, time alone. I guess."

"No running away." Vanille ordered him and he gave her a funny look.

"Why not?"

Her eyes flicked to the statue and she smiled sadly. "Because soldiers don't run away, they keep charging. They hold the line and they topple the enemy."

"We're not soldiers." He replied, crossing his arms.

"We are." Vanille looked at him, hoping what little confidence she had left would inspire him. "For Lightning, she needs us to step up. At least until she wakes up."

Something about her made Snow feel a tad better. He still needed to be alone, to gather his thoughts and allow himself a private moment of misery. But he didn't feel as hopeless as before. Vanille, as silly as she could be at times, was quite inspiring. Whether or not she truly believed Lightning would wake was irrelevant, she had spoken the truth.

Lightning needed them to step up; they needed to get Hope back.

* * *

"Rraaaaa!"

There was a sharp clang as a spear slammed into the metal wall. The staff shook, vibrating from the hit but it received no break. Again and again, the sharp points struck the wall and the weapon bounced off, shaking in reply.

Fang's eyes narrowed, before she went back to her actions. She needed something to kill and since there weren't any enemies to step in, she had to make due with the wall. It was both a gift and curse that the wall could stand up to her assault, as it let her keep hitting it, but she'd never have the satisfaction of ending it.

Panting, she cursed. Lightning had been turned to crystal, exactly how that had happened was beyond the Gran Pulse-born. That was something reserved for completing your focus, and unless the sergeant's was to be defeated by some psycho chick that kidnaps children, Lightning should be awake. Truth of the matter was though, she wasn't. Still she slept in stasis, waiting for whenever the fal'Cie chose to wake her.

Fang stopped.

Was the answer really that simple?

"Vanille!" She cried, dropping her spear and hurrying out of the room.

Vanille greeted her with a confused expression. She tilted her head as Fang grabbed her shoulders; her eyes alight with hope.

"You were with these guys, when they were made l'Cie?"

"Yep." She answered, blinking. "By Anima, in the vestige."

"What happened to 'im?"

"Um, I think he died?"

"You sure?"

"Well.. No, but there was this massive explosion…"

"Sazh!" Fang hurried to the cockpit while she ignored Vanille's confused questions; she was greeted by a rather confused pilot. "Where we headin'?"

"Nautilus, seemed like the last place that woman would look for us."

"Turn around."

The man gave Fang the most suspicious and annoyed of looks. Popping out of his hair was his chocobo chick, who blinked and looked as baffled as its owner at the order.

"'Cuse me? Why?"

"We don't got time to argue," Fang gestured to the controls. "Turn this junkard around."

"And go where? Back to the clearing to put Lightning back?"

"No, head for that crystal lake."

Sazh frowned. "Why? That place will be crawling with _real _PSICOM."

"Just go." Fang growled, clutching the back of the seat tighter in irritation.

Sazh lifted up his hands in surrender. "All right! Fine, we'll go."

The sky tank swung around, groaning a tad as its engines sputtered in protest. It had always needed an upgrade, but they had neglected it. It puttered for a time, wobbling in the air before it really got going, making its way over the Vile Peaks and back towards Lake Bresha, which even from a distance, sparkled due to its new crystal nature.

* * *

The screen fizzled as it connected to the headquarters, she frowned behind her mask. With all the technology they acquired from this act some would think they could afford a stable connection. With a sigh the commander waited, rapping her fingers on the cool blue desk within her quarters. For a moment the screen display a symbol as it created a secure and private signal, ensuring no one would intercept it.

Raiden had failed and failure had cost him not only his life, but his very existence. This wouldn't bode well; many believed the l'Cie they sought were much weaker than their organization, but that was far from the case. It had taken someone of her stature to scare them, to make them think twice before crossing paths again.

The only highlight was she had the boy.

Downside? She _only _had the boy. Snow Villiers and Lightning Farron weren't in her possession and what had happened to the sergeant, well…

The commander had no doubt in her mind; she was in for it when she returned.

"Commander," The voice was how one would imagine a snake's, charming and slimy. Her eyes focused on the screen, seeing the man before her. "You finally report in, how kind of you."

She bowed her head to the tan, bald man on the screen. "I apologize for the delay."

"Save your apologies, Commander, I have little use for them." He smiled as she scowled. "Did you procure the items?"

"One."

"_One?_" He feigned a pout. "Oh, dear, that won't do… Which one did you get?"

"The boy."

"Hope Estheim?" The man clicked his tongue and his dark eyes narrowed. "Not Sergeant Farron?"

She replied with silence.

"Oh… So she's sleeping…" The man didn't seem to know whether to be impressed or annoyed, his expression was a mixture. "Well I suppose that'll do. How is the boy?"

"I would assume angry."

He chuckled. "Do you know where they are now?"

"Last check on their trajectory suggested they were heading for Nautilus."

"Then bring the boy here and head for Nautilus. I'll send a small detachment there in the meantime…"

She nodded to him, watching as the man paused before he turned back to the screen. He brought a finger gently to his mouth as he thought, smiling darkly at the commander as he spoke again.

"Oh and, Morrigan… I want the hero _alive." _


	2. PSICOM

_I'm so glad to see no one wants to kill me. :3 I'm also glad to see some familiar faces popping up again! 8D I hope Breathe will keep all of youhappy! Currently I'm writing Chapter 4. I really hope this streak continues, it would make me very happy!_

_Thanks to SinisterPurr for beta'ing!_

**Breathe**

**PSICOM**

To say the group was on edge was a vast understatement. The sky tank was flying over ranks of PSICOM soldiers, searching the crystalline environment for anything that could hint at the l'Cie's where-abouts. From overhead, Fang could see that they had left the ruin vestige relatively alone, the soldiers refusing to go actually in the building.

At least they hadn't been shot down. That could put quite the damper on their day.

A day that was quickly drawing to a close. It was growing dark, and fighting PSICOM at night was definitely not something they wanted to do. As great as they were, fighting people who had laser targeting and night vision left the battle a little one sided. Not to mention the hordes of enemies out there, it was in their best interest to keep a low profile.

There was the sound of someone tripping over their own two feet, and Fang rolled her eyes.

Right, this group keeping a low profile. As if the crystal woman in the cargo-hold didn't raise a couple of questions.

"This isn't going to work." Sazh spoke, doing another fly over as he looked for a place to land. He wasn't the only one; three other airships were zooming around, desperately looking for a place to land that wasn't too close to the vestige. "Have you seen our group? Snow doesn't even fit into-"

"I got a plan, don't worry." Fang shot back, before her lips curved into a smirk. "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

"Oh, ha ha, so you watched a few vids…" Sazh frowned, "There's no where to land."

"You could land in the vestige!" Snow called from the cargo-hold.

Sazh shot a look over his shoulder. "Oh, yeah, that's great. Why not just paint a big red target on our hull instead?"

"Land there." Fang pointed to an open spot on the outskirts of the troops. It was far enough from the main transports so they could avoid any unwanted attention, but still within the perimeter line so they weren't too close to the crashed vestige. "Is everyone ready?"

"Yep!"

"Vanille," Fang patted Sazh on the shoulder as she moved back into the hold. The girl was clad in a PSICOM uniform, her face hidden behind the strange helmets the soldiers typically wore. "Remember not to be peppy."

"Oh, um.. Sure?"

Fang crossed her arms.

"I mean, Yes, Sir!" She saluted promptly.

"Better." Fang took her own helmet off the stand and slipped it on, finding the entire interface displayed on her screen rather confusing. "Oh, _great_..."

Snow was sitting in one of the seats, his size made him entirely too larger for any of the stowed away uniforms. Instead he was hunched over, wearing restraints on his wrists looking far too amused to be a prisoner.

"You know, when Vanille said we had to be soldiers, I don't think she meant literally.."

"We're landing in one minute!" Sazh called back to them.

Fang shrugged, handing Vanille one of the rifles. The girl giggled, pointing it at Snow.

"Bam." She joked, which got a kind smile from the man.

"Sazh, don't forget to put on ya helmet!"

"Yeah, yeah!" He called. "Damn thing's too tight on my head…"

"You have too much hair, Sazh!" Vanille snickered, watching as Fang took her own rifle from the wall. It was a little larger then the one she handed to Vanille, symbolizing she was in charge.

Or, at least they hoped.

"How are we gonna explain Lightning?" The girl questioned, looking at the crystal.

"We found her like that, and he was trying to move her." Fang pointed to Snow with her rifle.

Snow shook his head. "This isn't going to work…"

"What's with all the pessimism?" The tribeswoman shook her head in disbelief.

"Fang, you have _Vanille_ posing as a PSICOM soldier…"

"I know the plan has some flaws, but there's always plan B."

"What's that?"

The airship gently bobbed as it touched down, and Fang puffed up proudly, not having an inch of doubt in her voice.

"Kill every last one of 'em."

"Oh," The man chuckled. "I feel safer already."

"Shut up," Fang barked, though it wasn't as serious as she originally intended. "You're supposed to be a miserable prisoner."

With a soft hiss, the ramp began to lower. The two soldiers looked out, watching as three figures stood outside. They were waiting for a report; Sazh had mentioned something about this airship belonging to a group of ill-fated operatives. Hopefully, they would accept the lie (well, most of it was true actually) and just be on their merry way.

* * *

There was a l'Cie statue in the hold of the sky tank.

In all his years of service, never had Desa seen such a beautiful figure. A woman had apparently fulfilled her focus, and now she was here before him. Arms up while it looked like she was casting a powerful thunder spell. He stood there, awed for a second before he dared to approach such a treasure.

He was greeted by two soldiers who promptly saluted him. He returned the gesture, his eyes falling back on the statue. Of course, a low cough drew his attention away, almost painfully. Behind his mask he scowled, clutching his rifle tighter as he pushed past the two and stared at the giant man sitting hunched over in the hold.

"One of the l'Cie…" He murmured, his voice sounded slightly automated due to his helmet. "Where'd you find him?"

"At the Vile Peaks, Sir." The woman who replied was the taller of the two, and sounded as if she had an accent. "He was with the statue."

"No doubt one of the others who escaped Palumpolem," Desa glanced back at the statue. "Friend of yours?"

The man's hands coiled into fists.

"Hmph…" He turned his attention back to the two. "Where's your pilot?"

"He's still in the cockpit Sir, our transport has been having some trouble."

"Ah," The Captain touched the wall of the hold. "These older models tend to have some difficulty… Where's the rest of your squad?"

"Dead." The answer was flat. "We were scouting, when we returned most of the men were dead, he was clinging to the statue."

He wasn't sure, but something seemed off about their tale. "Do you know what her focus was?"

"No, Sir, she was crystal when we returned."

Desa turned to the blond man, who was glaring up at him with icy, empty eyes. "Do you know?"

"My guess: to kill every one of you murdering bastards. Too bad she had to settle for just a squad."

The Captain slammed the l'Cie upside the head with the butt of his rifle. Blood flew from the force of the hit and splattered onto the floor and crystal figure. "They had families, not that a l'Cie would understand that..."

That glare the man had been giving him turned darker. Desa swore the temperature dropped.

"Are you planning to turn him over to Lt. Colonel Rosch?"

There was a second of silence; Desa assumed it was surprise. "The Colonel is here?"

"He arrived shortly before you did, said something about the PSICOM brigade previously deployed here was amiss." The Captain paused. "You wouldn't know anything about that?"

"No, Sir, we never encountered another group." That accent was quite intriguing, Desa made note to seek this officer out later. He hadn't heard of any places on Cocoon that had such a voice.

"There was a shattered statue, where we found the lone l'Cie and this woman." The smaller of the two piped up, her voice having a similar accent.

"Hm." Desa pondered. "Well, Rosch will want to know about this l'Cie-"

"Sir, the l'Cie has agreed to help us."

That was a rather odd thing for the enemy to do.

"He has?"

* * *

Fang nodded, hoping that this lie wasn't pushing their facade a little far. "The woman who was crystallized, she was his fiancée."

Snow looked at her, surprise on his features. The Captain looked over at him.

"Y-You…" He growled, his voice shaky. "You said you wouldn't-"

"I don't lie to my superiors." Fang snapped back, huffing. "He said he'd help us as long as we give our word nothing happens to her."

Desa had no intention of harming the figure trapped in an endless slumber. He grunted and nodded, gesturing to Snow. "How can you help us?"

"There's a room in the vestige." The man began, looking at the ground sadly. "Our supplies are there, it's how we've been moving from place to place. We stockpiled inside, seeing as any _human _that enters turns into a monster… We figured it'd be safe."

"Cieth guarding l'Cie treasure…" One of the soldiers behind the Captain commented.

"Well, I'll send a team into the vestige to-"

"It only opens on the command of a l'Cie." The blond looked up, his eyes challenging. "Ancient fal'Cie magic."

"Hmph… Well," his eyes fell back on the disguised Fang and Vanille. "Since you two seem so capable, you'll lead the team to reach these resources. I'll send over a few men."

"Thank you, Sir."

The tension didn't vanish after Desa and his men left. Snow was glaring at the tribeswoman, the temperature that had dropped before hadn't returned to normal. If anything it had gotten colder. Fang frowned, not that it was visible to the man, but it still felt good to hope he saw her expression.

"What?" She snapped.

"My fiancée?" Snow growled, looking over at Lightning. "Maybe you've forgot, but I proposed to the _other _Farron sister."

"Aye, but it's the first thing that popped into my mind." The woman returned with a slight growl. "At the moment there isn't much in difference between them, is there? Both crystal, both have pink hair and both warrant your gaze."

"They… What?" Snow blinked, looking taken aback.

"Don't play innocent with me," Fang pointed the rifle at him accusingly. "You admire her features, _a lot."_

"I… Don't." The man gritted his teeth together. "Besides you stare at her more than I do. What's with that?"

_Don't turn this around boy. _Fang snarled inside her head, eyes narrowing at the challenge. "I stare at her face, jackass."

"Oh really?" Snow smirked, crossing his arms. "Should I start naming off occasions where you were staring at a different part of her body?"

"Snow, you're fixin' for a-"

Vanille blinked. "Commander!" She shouted, trying to gather their attention. It worked for a brief moment. "Captain Desa is returning."

Immediately the argument was dropped, though there was no doubt in Fang's mind that it would continue at a later point. The strain was almost visible, as a few of the soldiers Desa gave to them didn't want to get between their new commander and the l'Cie.

What surprised the entire group was when Desa handed Fang a controller. It was relatively small with a touch screen displaying an outline of a machine. The woman blinked, holding it awkwardly before she looked up at her captain and saw behind him was a massive, admittedly strange looking mechanized soldier.

It was an Orion; a fast and somewhat humanoid shaped warrior designed and programmed to help PSICOM. The group had fought them before, and never had they imagined that any of them would have the controls to one. It had a large white breastplate, while its limbs were a mix of yellow, blue and white panels and wiring. It stood almost awkwardly on three strange legs while one arm was long and ended in blue, sparking antennas. The other appeared to be a weapon that could unfurl for a special or elemental strike.

It _towered_ over them all. Looking down on them with its strange black and yellow face that was vaguely birdlike.

"It will come in handy if the l'Cie tries anything, or if you run into any Cieth left over from the crash." Desa nodded. "That controller means it'll listen directly to you. Don't let _him _get a hold of it." The captain looked towards Snow, who glared back. "It'll be a nightmare in the wrong hands."

Fang grinned underneath her helm. "Of course, Sir, I assure you, I'll put it to good use."


	3. Lucid

_I'm so sorry for the late update. Life got a tad busy and grabbed me, taking me away from my loyal readers! Anyways, tomorrow is father's day; I bought mine an iPod shuffle. Voice activated, oh this is gonna be funny. He lost his other some how; so I got him a new, smaller one. I wonder what it's gonna do when he inevitably yells 'fuck!' at it…_

**Breathe**

**Lucid**

Something was wrong.

Lightning couldn't get to sleep; she tossed and turned in her bed the entire night. Even as her heavy-lidded eyes closed, and she thought she was sleeping, her mind was so awake it was bewildering. Something was bothering her, though she couldn't for the life of her remember what it was. This environment, her home, the people she saw day to day… Everything felt so fake and surreal, she wondered what was wrong.

_Wasn't I supposed to do something? Something important?_

Nothing came to mind, in fact, there seemed to be a rather impressive blank spot in her memory banks. If she really strained, she could remember fireworks. Maybe she had gone out drinking with a few of the other soldiers from work and gotten carried away. Not that Lightning ever let herself get completely plastered, it wasn't in her nature.

_So, drunken blackouts are out of the question._

Memory issues? She never had any before, not that she could recall. Of course, if she did have one, one could assume she wouldn't remember having it.

_That's a vicious cycle and I'm too tired to deal with it._

Hours drifted by, and at some point the woman felt like she was asleep. Her mind was light and floating in an endless sea of stars. Secretly she admired them, and how they all sparkled and almost seemed to calm her worried nerves.

Nerves. That had to be the reason.

She awoke slowly, her mind vaguely acknowledging that something had fallen over. The breeze outside had been a little strong in the later hours of the evening; she had probably left a window open. With a groan she forced her eyes open more and got to her feet. The floor was cold under her naked toes, making a shiver run up her spine in response.

She padded quickly into the main room and froze. Eyes barely seeing the human figure in the dark kitchen. Lightning's body tensed and instantly her was clutching her sword. Though she wasn't entirely sure where she had grabbed it from or where on Cocoon she had put it, now it was in her hand and she was armed.

"Who are you?" Her voice was steady and militaristic. The form froze and slowly turned. She blinked, barely believing her eyes. "Snow?"

"Hey, Light," He waved and flicked on a light. Immediately she covered her eyes to protect them from the sudden glare of the kitchen pot lights. She frowned, seeing him holding a can of soda in his hand.

"Stealing my pop…" Lightning's eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms. Her expression wavering.

_Where did the Blaze Edge go?_

"Sorry, I was thirsty." He paused, looking at her strangely. "Something wrong?"

"… No." The woman glared at him. "What are you doing here?"

Now the man looked horribly confused. "What do you mean?"

"This is my house Snow." Lightning's voice was clear and flat. "What are you doing here so late?"

Snow gave her a wary gaze before he smiled and neared her. Lightning blinked, utterly dumbfounded as he pulled her closer and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Go to sleep Light, you're tired."

She gave him a look of utter shock as he pulled away and wandered towards the living room. "I.. What did you-"

Despite her shock, when he gave her a concerned look she stopped. Her voice hitched in her throat, didn't he belong to Serah? When had they become close enough for him to kiss her on the forehead and…

"Where's Serah?"

Snow looked at her, putting down his drink before nearing her again. Lightning tensed, bringing up her arms slightly in a sort of half-defensive stance. She looked at him apprehensively when he placed his hands on her shoulders and bent down, looking into her eyes.

"You don't remember?"

Do I have a memory problem?

"No." She replied, and shrugged off his hands defiantly. "Where is she?"

Suddenly the man looked miserable. His cheerful eyes lost their luster and she secretly wished she had never asked the question. He took an unsteady step back, hand scratching behind his head as he gazed at the ground, wondering how to answer.

"She's… Gone Light."

'Gone'… Exactly what did that imply? Had she been kidnapped? Did she die? Was she hurt? Where was her baby sister?

"What do you mean gone?" Lightning growled, though unintentionally.

"She died…" Snow wasn't known for handling delicate situations well. "You… You said goodbye to her then."

There was a brief moment of flashes; Serah was in some sort of crystal coffin, propped up on display? It was all a confusing mess, but Lightning could remember the emptiness she had felt at that moment. When all she had lived for had been robbed from her.

"_This is goodbye."_

"I'm sorry." Lightning bowed a tad. "I don't know how I forgot…"

"It's all right." She was suddenly embraced in a tight hug that she just stood limply into. Her eyes were wide as she tried to remember what had happened. She could hear his pounding heart, so steady and calm, even after her rudeness. How long has it been since Serah passed? "You took it pretty hard."

She didn't reply, which warranted the man to pull away and bend down again. She could barely meet his gaze, which wounded her pride. She wasn't one to just bend at a challenge, but for whatever reason she hadn't dealt with it.

"You should go to bed," he smiled kindly, something that made her instantly blush.

_You shouldn't be smiling like that at me._

She broke her stare away with a quick glance in either direction before she turned back to bed. "Yeah…"

So she lied in bed, quiet. Brain mulling over what had just happened.

Serah was dead and Snow lived with her? This wasn't possible; she hated Snow. He was useless, so how exactly had this come around? The more the woman thought on it, the more small tidbits of memories began to flash before her waking eyes. There was a strange ruin, other people she didn't quite remember and the _Lindblum_.

She had never been on the _Lindblum_, so why she had memories of its interior was beyond her. Could Snow be lying? He had never been that great of a liar, she could recall numerous times he had attempted to lie to Serah to surprise her later and she saw straight through it.

What also floated into her mind was a beast she had never seen before; a giant mechanical knight who stood between her and another of its kind. She felt vaguely fearful as the memory turned a tad clearer, showing the two fight as some giant man attacked her.

_Am I going mad? _She questioned, turning over.

Then there was another memory. The vague sensation of someone's lips on hers, this surprised her. Almost instinctively she licked her lips at the recollection, feeling her cheeks warm with a private embarrassment at the action. The memory moved on, passed random thoughts that seemed rather odd until she saw the image of someone smirking.

A woman smirking.

Oh… God …

Fang. Her name was Fang, that's who she was. She was infuriating, if Lightning recalled correctly. She insisted on being a problem and playing with emotions of everyone around her. But there was laughter, and some younger woman who clung to Fang with a big bright smile.

Then a boy, with white blond hair. Lightning's heart throbbed like it missed him, like she should be there, protecting him.

Finally a pilot with an afro, he always had a chocobo chick with him. He was older than all of them, and made a point of having more experience. Lightning had always rolled her eyes at his advice, but now she couldn't even remember his name, let alone his words of wisdom.

Another shocker, Lightning clapped her hand over her mouth. She had kissed Snow, in some dark place while she was angry. Irritation began to smolder within her, had she lost all control? From what her memory showed, it's like everything had been spiraling downwards towards a complete disaster.

Did disaster strike?

_How did I get here? _She frowned; the inconsistency didn't help her. Lightning hated holes; they did nothing but let enemies find weaknesses.

Instantly she was up, and she felt the weight of the Blaze Edge. It was in its holster, once again appearing out of nowhere. Gritting her teeth she stomped out of the bedroom and faced Snow. He was staring at her, a clueless look to his face. That wasn't entirely surprising, the man wasn't the brightest bulb in the pack.

"How did I get here?" She growled.

Snow blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"_How _did I get _here?_" Lightning repeated, empathizing her words. "Tell me, now."

"Lightning you-" Snow immediately halted when the tip of the sword was at his chest, gently pressing against his shirt.

"You don't need to get closer to explain," She countered, eyes narrowing. "Where's Fang?"

"Fang?" He paused, frowning. "She's not here."

"Where is she?"

"On Pulse."

"_Gran_ Pulse." Was the woman's immediate reply, which seemed to surprise them both. "If she's on the planet below, how did we meet?"

"Light-"

"Where are the others?"

"Will you-"

"The boy with the light hair, what happened to him?"

"For the love of-"

"How did Serah die!" She roared, and it was almost like the entire house shook at her anger. "How Snow?"

He was silent, his face turning rather stern. "You failed."

Lightning's mouth dropped a tad, she remembered being in the vestige and holding Serah. She had yelled at Snow for his failures before the girl had silenced them both with a wish.

"_Save Cocoon…"_

"Lightning!"

The voice belonged to Serah, and instantly both of them looked towards the door. It was dark outside still, but there wasn't a single star in the sky from what the sergeant could tell. Her eyes widen a tad at the voice, but her emotions were suddenly much easier to control, pieces of the puzzle began to fall back into place. She went for the door, only to be blocked by a rather imposing Villiers.

She looked up at him, eyes frigid. "Move, Snow."

"You can't be content can you?" He growled, and shoved her back. Lightning stumbled, regaining her balance quickly. "You could've had everything, this is what you wanted."

"No, it isn't-"

"Don't lie, Lightning." His voice seemed to shift, slowing turning unnatural. "Maybe the others would buy it, but I won't."

"You're not Snow then," Lightning countered, voice even. "So I won't feel any guilt when I gut you."

So the fight began. Her sword slammed hard into his forearm, but she found that she was no longer fighting a man made of flesh and blood. Her blade clanged against the hardened carapace of a Cieth. Its body making her looking a child in size comparison, wavering tendrils danced in the air off its back, and its giant arms swung at her clumsily.

Clumsy as the creature may be, there was no way Lightning intended to get hit. She ducked, narrowly avoiding either strike before she went to use a thunder spell.

Nothing happened, and Lightning stared dumbfounded at her hand. Why couldn't she use magic? She could before, couldn't she? That hesitation had her slammed hard to the right, crashing through one of the windows and landing on the soft beach sand. She groaned, coughing before rolling back up onto her feet.

_Soldier first, mage second. I can beat this thing._

The wall around the window began to crumble and fall as that monster tried to make its way towards its opponent. Lightning took the second to scan the area, the beach was dark, and there were only a few people due to the hour.

"Serah?" She called, spinning around almost dizzily. "Serah, where are you?"

"Lightning!"

She spun around to see her sister running from the road, she looked tired and scared. The girl stopped abruptly and pointed; "Look out!"

The sergeant's eyes went wide and she ducked. The swing brushing against her hair and in her peripheral vision she could see a lower swing coming to tag her. Lightning's eyes narrowed and she leapt, jumping as high as she could she swung her lower limbs up, avoiding the strike before landing harshly back on the ground.

There was a crack and Lightning wobbled; her knee hadn't appreciated the landing. She looked over her shoulder as the monster roared and charged.

A white orb that exploded into a brilliant light struck its red eye, the shock wave sent both Lightning and the monster to the ground, but the thing seemed to be having more trouble than the woman. She huffed, hobbling to her feet as she saw Serah run over to her.

"Come on," Serah took her hand. "We have to get away from here."

Lightning was lost. "What is going on?"

The girl urged her sister on, taking her wrist and pulling. "Light this isn't the time to question everything! We need to run!"

"I don't even know if you're my sister," The older of the two countered, freeing her wrist. "That…. _Thing_," she glanced back at the groaning Cieth. "Was Snow…"

The girl blinked, looking at the monster. "Snow?"

"Not the real Snow, but it looked like him before."

Serah looked at her sister, soft blue eyes looking worried. "I can't prove it." She stated simply with a face of worry. "All you can do is trust me."

Her sister looked back at the red and black velocycle parked at the side of the road. The monster growled, beginning to right itself.

"Please, Claire," Serah she took Lightning urgently by the arm. "You've got to trust me."


	4. Shiny

_Right, sorry again for the slight delay. Life has caught me again and seems to be pulling me anywhere else but the comp. I'm also, admittedly, a little frustrated with the story. So the next chapter you might have to wait for. I apologize for the delay. D:_

**Breathe**

**Shiny**

Acting perfectly balanced and normal wasn't as big of a challenge as everyone would've thought for Vanille. She kept up her façade exceedingly well, relying on the idea that she was such a good liar, which one of the men who were actually part of PSICOM would notice? Yes, a few had commented about her height, and her smaller frame that would've made her a better huntress than frontline soldier, but Fang, or Commander Yun, as she had fibbed, had told them all to shut it.

So the lie was in perfect place as silence fell over them The Orion that Fang had inherited was in the back; only its mechanical pieces inside breaking the silence with a slight pop or crackle. Fang rose her hand to stop them, they was now in the main hall of the vestige, or what was left of it. Before it had been a confusing maze of moving platforms she and Hope had followed Snow around on, but now it was a mix of collapsed floors, crystallized water and half consumed platforms that still sparked.

It was eerily quiet in this place, something the girl didn't particularly like but dealt with. They had to save Lightning after all, and she couldn't falter because she hated the quiet.

Though she really wished someone would talk.

"We should report in." Came one of the soldiers from behind, moving up next to Fang. "Captain Desa will send in more troops if he thinks the l'Cie got the drop on us."

Fang nodded to him, though Vanille could see she was clearly more interested in the control pad she had received. She moved up, gesturing to the others to keep a closer eye on Snow as she neared her friend. The girl looked at the screen, seeing how it displayed all of them, including Snow. He was in red, while the rest of them were in green.

"Never liked machines…" Fang murmured, causing the other soldier to look at her curiously. "Always preferred gettin' the job done myself."

"Understandable." Was the short reply, Vanille tilted her head.

"Do you mind if I speak privately with the Commander?"

The soldier took his leave, moving back with the rest. The girl nudged Fang.

"How does it work?"

"As if I should know, I wasn't jokin'. I hate machines, bleedin' things never work right around me."

Vanille seemed a little lost. "When did all these accidents happen?"

"Anything I touched on the _Lindblum _ceased to work_…_" She snorted, tapping a pad to get the targeting screen. "Oh here we go…"

Fang continued to fiddle before she nodded to Vanille, who moved towards Snow. The Orion didn't seem particularly interested in anything going on, though its mechanical sights were fixated on the signal target it had. There was a faint beep from the machine before it seemed to switch positions.

_Alrighty… _She pressed a small button on the restraints before she looked up at Snow.

Snow smirked, before he body-checked the girl to the ground. She let out a yelp, hitting the ground with a hard _thump._

"Look out he's loose!" Fang cried, opening up a barrage of confusing fire that spurred the others into action.

Including the Orion. It zoomed up to one of the soldiers, electrified arm thrusting forward with as much force as a full-speed velocycle into the soldier. His body spasm from the shocking hit before the others cried out in shock.

PSICOM didn't know what was going on, the Orion had moved onto its second target as Vanille recovered. She opened fire, shaking from the recoil of the gun as it spewed out bullets. They pelted her target's armour before Snow rushed in from the side, his elbow clocking the soldier on the side of the head.

"What the hell-" Another soldier fell dead on the floor as the Orion zapped him as well. It swiftly backed up out of the range of the fourth and final opponent who seemed bewildered.

"What's going on!" He cried, staring at the l'Cie and the traitorous PSICOM commanders. "Why are you helping him!"

It startled Snow and Vanille when Fang opened fire, sending a wave of bullets into the man's face before he slumped down.

She stood there, looking at the two of them. "We have to find Anima, let's go." Fang lead on, pausing briefly to see that the mechanical addition to their team hadn't budged; perhaps it was having trouble computing what just happened. "Hey, Shiny!"

It looked at her, humming.

"Get yer butt movin', if you get lost, I'm not comin' back to find ya."

* * *

"So exactly how do we plan on even finding Anima?" Snow questioned, hands behind his head. He had resigned to the back, walking next to the Orion who had once had its weapons fixed on him. Now it paid him no mind, just hummed and beeped occasionally.

Fang hadn't thought about it. "We'll search every room." She countered; she had removed her helmet long ago. The damn thing had driven her up the wall. "That work for ya?"

"Oh yeah, I figured that was our plan." The man didn't like being the bearer of bad news, but their plan had obvious holes in it. Anima had died hadn't he? "What if he's dead?"

The tribeswoman audibly growled, glaring back at the man who took the hint.

"Shutting up, gotcha."

"What do you think Light's dreamin' about?" Vanille questioned, she hadn't removed her helm yet. She found it far too amusing and liked the display, though honestly she had no idea what half the readings meant.

Both Fang and Snow looked at the girl, though their expressions were vastly different. The man seemed rather curious, while Fang looked annoyed. Vanille figured it was kind of a bad topic, but seeing has neither of them had opted for a real conversation, she'd try.

"Maybe home?" Snow offered. "Serah said she liked their seaside place."

_Stars. _Fang thought to herself, almost bitterly. _Endless stars, that's probably what she's dreamin' about. If we even dream…_

Fang didn't remember her dream, all she could remember was waking up and being completely lost.

"You got an idea Fang?" Vanille questioned, looking at her friend curiously.

"No." She huffed in reply and picked up the pace. "It doesn't matter does it? We're gonna find Anima and wake 'er up."

"That's true…" The girl admitted. "But then thinking about what she might be dreaming about isn't bad, is it?"

"I guess not." Fang hung her head slightly. "Can't you pick something else?"

Snow smirked. "How angry do you think Sazh is that we left him back on the ship?"

Fang let her smile and a chuckle escaped her. "I bet we're in for it when we get back."

"He has the chocobo to keep him company!" Vanille chimed, her outfit contradicting her attitude. "Of course explaining to the PSICOM officials how he got a chocobo might be interesting…"

"Blame it on me," Snow offered as he rolled his eyes. "I'm the 'miserable l'Cie prisoner' remember?"

"Tehe, so everything is your fault?"

The man shot a look to the back of Fang. "Apparently."

There was a whirl and a beep that caused the group to falter. Fang turned, raising an eyebrow at the Orion. It had stopped, and seemed fixated on standing in that one spot. She approached slowly, checking the control pad. They were all still registered as friendly, so why had the thing stopped?

"Oi!" Fang caught its attention. "Somethin' wrong, Shiny? Now's not the time to-"

The tribeswoman was cut off by a short blast as Shiny revealed its cannon arm; it unraveled quickly and fired a deafening shot into the crystal ground. Pieces of glass went flying everywhere, making Snow shield himself. The group was quiet, watching the Orion hum before it fired another shot.

And another…

"Hey!" Fang cried, waving her arm. "_Stop _firing."

The machine nodded, but its cannon arm didn't fold back up.

"What was it shooting at?" Vanille questioned, bouncing over to the thing. Her eyes fell to the crystal floor and she felt her stomach lurch for a moment. "Whoaa…"

Snow and Fang looked down and their hearts fluttered. The must've been standing on a crystallized wave of water, because below them was a sheer drop to absolutely nowhere. The tribeswoman frowned, kneeling down, the crystal did a good job at reflecting nearly everything, but she could just see something.

"What is that?" She murmured, glancing at Snow as he bent down beside her.

"I…" He squinted. "I don't know."

Vanille looked at the Orion. "Do you know what it is?"

The machine didn't answer.

"Is it what we're looking for?"

Still no answer.

"Um…" The girl paused, trying to see through the crystal. Her helmet helped a tad, it outlined something in yellow, and it vaguely had the shape of something humanoid. "It looks like a human…" The girl frowned. "I… think."

"It's got to be Anima." Snow looked at Fang, obviously excited. "Shiny there had to be trying to get to it."

Fang frowned, glancing back at the contraption. "How do you figure?"

"Because it's been listening this entire time, and those things are capable of making decisions. What's stopping it from helping us?"

_Machines with their own minds, _Fang clicked her tongue. _Fantastic. _

"_Commander."_

Fang nearly yelped as her control pad began to talk to her. She recognized the voice as Desa's. She bit her lip, pressing the button. "Sir."

"_Have you found the stash yet?"_

"Not yet Sir." She frowned, staring at the shape through the crystal again. "But I believe we're getting close."

"_I'm sending in another team, Rosch doesn't like the idea of so little soldiers guarding a l'Cie."_

Fang bit her lip. "When can we expect them, Sir?"

"_Soon. Their commander has already dealt with l'Cie before, so he''l be a valuable asset."_

Now that wasn't comforting at all. Fang coughed, thinking quickly.

"He's encountered the l'Cie before?"

"_When two of the escape l'Cie were at Nautilus, he helped apprehend them."_

Vanille froze, fear beginning to wrap around her heart. She looked around nervously, tempted to help the Orion blast through the crystal so they could reach Anima faster. This was of course; assuming whatever was down there was in fact the fallen fal'Cie. It could be just a junk heap for all she knew.

"Of course, Sir, we're glad to have the help."

"_Good luck Commander."_

Fang shoved the controller back into one of the uniform's pockets. She stared at the trio before her, biting her lip as she tried to think of a plan. The leader hadn't counted on a PSICOM operative who had encountered their kind before, which was going to cause problems. So many things flew through her mind, yet none of them provided any solutions.

Fang gritted her teeth. "_Fuck_."

"We need to get to that fal'Cie." Snow nodded, "if we keep shooting the crystal, we'll just attract attention."

"One of us has to stay here." Fang agreed, "To keep watch."

Vanille glanced at them, hiding her fear. "I'll do it."

Both looked over at her.

"Vanille you don't have to…"

"Absolutely not." Fang snapped. "You're coming to the-"

"No." The girl countered, holding the rifle like a proper soldier. "I can take them off our trail."

The tribeswoman wasn't used to such blatant defiance. In truth she didn't want to leave Vanille, it had taken so long to find the girl again, that Fang never wanted to let her out of her sights again. Fang's irritated expression fell apart quickly; she looked worried.

"Vanille, this man who's coming… Chances are he'll recognize you."

_I'm counting on it. _The girl thought, though she merely nodded to her guardian. "Don't worry, I can handle it."

Snow looked between the two, before he placed a hand on Fang's shoulder. "We've got to go."

"Yeah…" Fang shrugged off his sympathy. "Let's go," she glanced back at her charge. "Be careful."

"I will." The disguised girl waved lightly as the machine hurried to follow its master. Snow and Fang ran for one of the narrow corridors, disappearing inside. "Okay then…"

Vanille turned, holding the rifle close to her. In truth she wished she could've brought her binding rod, it was ten times easier to use than a gun. She was already out of her element and now she was going to come face to face with a soldier who had encountered her already. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself and control her nerves.

She wasn't helpless; she knew how to fight, and she was a l'Cie. She could use magic. This wasn't like Nautilus, she hadn't been caught in her lie and been forced to tell the horrible truth. Instead she could face her opponent head on, and give the others the time they needed.

_I need to be brave. _She straightened up. _No running away… _

An image of Lightning passed over her eyes.

I need to be a soldier…


	5. The Train

_I am sorry this is late (or I'm assuming it's late, if its not then I retract my apology)! I actually hit a bit of writer's block and found myself unable to write. Anyways here's the next chapter, I enjoyed writing it. Next chapter will probably bounce back to Fang and her group in the real world~_

_Chapter was beta'd by ChobiChibi! _

**Breathe**

**The Train**

"What do you remember?" Serah questioned, watching her sister with a worried face.

Lightning limped in circles, eyes moving side to side as her mind began to put the pieces back into place. Her entire journey was flashing before her eyes. Now that she finally had a moment to truly recall. Fleeing with her sister on the velocycle had proved to be good, the farther she was from that damned house of hers the easier it was to remember.

"Everything," Lightning spoke, looking up at her sister. Serah was caught off guard when her older sister embraced her in a desperate hug. A small smile though, broke the girls lips and she hugged her sister back. "I'm so sorry, Serah…"

"I know." Serah noted, with a smile as Lightning gave her a look. "You told me."

"That bit…" Light backed up, thinking to herself. "Is foggy." The sergeant's eyes scanned the area. "Where are we?"

"In an old workshop, it's one of the better hiding spots."

Lightning's eyebrow rose. "Why were you hiding?"

"I came to find you, to help you…" Serah shuffled, moving towards one of the windows. "I thought maybe you had fulfilled your focus…"

"But?"

The girl looked at her, biting her lip for a moment. "Turns out you didn't, Morrigan put you here."

"… Morrigan?" Lightning watched her sister carefully pull an old, moth-eating curtain back and peer outside.

"That you won't remember," Serah slipped back as a soldier passed by. "Morrigan, she's this woman that's been hunting you and the others."

"… The commander…" Lightning eyed the ground, pacing as she thought. "The one Raiden answered too."

Serah nodded. "Light, she put you in stasis."

"How did she-"

"I don't know, she shouldn't… No l'Cie has that power." The younger of the two seemed extremely worried. "If she's a fal'Cie, then the rest of the group is in trouble. They're already losing focus without you."

"Who's in command?"

"Fang… But everyone has their own agenda, and I can't really see the outcomes clearly anymore…" Serah shook her head. "But we can't help them at the moment, we need to get moving."

The soldier had her arms crossed as her sister tried to formulate a plan. "Exactly where are we going?"

"This dream, it's kinda like Morrigan pressed reset. We're back at the beginning…." Serah gulped. "Your birthday."

"Oh…"

_I don't recall living with Snow on my birthday…_

"We need to get to the Purge train."

Lightning frowned, one hand on her hip. "We? Serah, you weren't on the train."

"I said kinda." Serah huffed, crossing her arms. "This place is made up of significant memories… The house, the train… All up until you fell asleep."

The sergeant turned away with a snort, muttering to herself. "More like knocked unconscious…"

"But the memories are twisted, originally they were changed to make you content. But now they've shifted, Morrigan intends to kill you…" Serah's eyes began to water; she looked at the ground hopeless. "And you don't want to die here…"

Lightning sighed; it would figure that some mad woman would come up with the most interesting of ways to kill her. She looked a little irritated as she thought, pondering over if the 'reset' was the reason she couldn't use any spells. Briefly she played with the idea of asking her sister, but the girl had enough to worry about. For now, Serah would play the role as mage.

_You're willingly putting your sister in danger. _Lightning gritted her teeth, she had swore to protect her, not put her in harm's way.

"Here…" Serah knelt down next to Lightning's leg, and placed her hands on her knee. The sergeant twitched a bit, uncomfortable with her weakness being known. She watched silently as her sister's hands glowed a soft green before the energy swept into Lightning's leg.

There was a soft _crack_ before her knee felt ten times better then before.

"I'm not a great fighter…" Serah stood up, and looked embarrassed. "I'll keep you healthy, but you'll have to do the fighting."

"I wouldn't have it any other way.." Lightning replied coolly, eyes narrowing as she heard someone near the workshop door. She glanced back at Serah as she unsheathed the Blaze Edge, pointing its barrel towards the entrance. "We have a train catch."

* * *

Her plan to assault the train the first time was a bit flimsy, the only advantage she had about doing it the second time was the memory. Serah had explained further that as much as Morrigan could attempt to twist her not-quite-right-reality, it had to follow the same basic laws and dramatic changes had to be limited. Of course, 'limited' meant to one person or thing at a time.

It had no real laws about how big or dangerous that altered thing could get, so even with her sister beside her, she'd have to play it like reality. So she did exactly that, she boarded the train after she gave her weapon to the PSICOM soldier. Serah and herself were put into Purge get-up and locked down in the seats.

This hadn't worked the first time; it wasn't going to work the second either.

Serah was a little quiet; she was playing witness to memories and events she never knew about before. She wasn't like the other captives, she didn't keep her head down and didn't murmur curses to herself, she was actively taking everything in. Lightning had her face to the ground, eyes narrowed as she mulled over things.

_What are the others doing at this moment?_

It crossed her mind to wonder if they were searching for a way to wake her, or continuing on their focus. The latter wasn't that likely, it was hard enough to motivate the group when she was around to threaten them, if she wasn't there to kick anyone in the rear then…

_Who had taken charge? Serah said Fang but…_

Snow or Fang were the likeliest of choices. They had the charisma and 'follow-me' attitude. Lightning's persona had always been toned down compared to those two light bulbs, but they had always (usually) conceded to Lightning's point eventually. However, Vanille, Hope and Sazh all tended to have moments where they would argue or not listen, hell Vanille had this awful habit of wandering off.

And getting lost, that was impressive when she got lost in the middle of a clearing…

Lightning scoffed at the memory, feeling the train begin to move. It wasn't until now really, that she was finally with her sister again, that she realized just how much she missed the others. Vanille and Hope tormenting each other, Sazh and his damned chocobo, Snow and his stupid (and sometimes perverted) jokes and Fang…

Lightning's breathed hitched in her throat as she recalled the dark-haired woman. She could see her as clear as day, her sultry eyes burning with so many honest emotions it was hard to bear at times. Fang didn't try to hide behind some mask, her confident nature was as pure as she was, there weren't any lies with her…

_You lie._

Lightning looked away, feeling irritation beginning to grow.

_Liar, Liar, pants on fire…_

A childish insult, but it stung.

"Light?" Serah whispered, as the guard passed. "Are you alright?"

Lightning's eyes flicked upwards, watching at the soldier turned around. "Tch."

And she was up, releasing stored energy from her AMP, the bars holding people in fried and let go. Before the soldier could even turn around she was on him, though not nearly as graceful as she was before. Her maternal instinct had roared to life as the prospect of Serah being shot or wounded in this nightmare.

If Morrigan wanted to end her, Lightning wasn't going out without a fal'Cie damned **BANG. **

She stomped roughly on the man's neck, feeling it crunch beneath her boot before swiping the rifle. Lightly she tossed it to Serah, a stern, militarized expression donning on her face.

"Shoot first," The sergeant commanded, watching her baby sister straighten up. "No remorse, no mercy. Got that?"

Serah looked at the weapon and gulped, pulling it closer to her. "Got it."

"Let's go."

It didn't take the next two guards long to come running in. Though somewhat shocked that anyone was even attempting a rebellion on the train, they reacted exactly how they did before. Their guns went up and concentrated on Lightning, convenient they were completely ignoring her sister.

Serah watched as her sister back-flipped, her purge robe being torn apart by gunfire before she landed on her hands and kicked one in the head. Her acrobatics were impressive; the girl had never really seen them in action before, just heard of them from the others in the Guardian Corps.

The last soldier went to fire, but his head promptly met the soldier's swinging elbow and then he was down. Serah frowned, throwing off her own robes before hurrying to her sister who had snatched a rifle for herself.

"So… Exactly why did you give me a gun? You took out everyone by yourself."

Lightning didn't reply, just glanced back at her sister, looking hesitant before her eyes switched back to the door. Serah moved closer to her sister, staying out of the way as Light pressed the pad and the door swished opened.

And in Lightning went, bullets flying.

She missed, and the soldier was out in the open. Serah's eyes narrowed, and she stepped out from her hiding spot. Briefly she wondered if the skill with a gun was genetic in any way, or was she as likely to hit Lightning as the PSICOM soldier. With a sharp intake of air the girl didn't postpone her shot any longer.

Bullets went flying; Lightning ducked to the side out of the way and the soldier who had tried to kill her was pelted with metal. The sergeant's sharp glare shot back at her sister as she emerged from the cove she had taken refuge in.

"What were you _aiming_ at?"

Alright, the skill was definitely _not _genetic.

"Him," Serah gestured to the dead soldier on the floor, she took comfort that this was Lightning's dream and not real people. "And well…. The walls, floor, and oh, lets not forget you."

Lightning was far from amused. "Try shooting when I'm _not _in your firing line."

_Though it's incredibly wide, maybe I should just duck and cover every time she chooses to fire._

"Yes ma'am." Serah saluted with a smile.

"Tch, come on."

They reached the next door, and Lightning paused. Her cool eyes flicked over to her sister, concern laced in her voice. "There are five soldiers in the next room."

"Oh…" Serah gulped.

"The first will come through the far door, leave him and the second for me. There are three that come in from the sides, _aim _for them." Lightning nodded as her sister prepared herself. "Don't get shot, I can't use magic."

"What happens if Morrigan's changed something in there?" Serah questioned, watching as her sister neared the door.

"Then I'll go for the big guy, you stay here and deal with the normal soldiers."

"Okay.." Serah frowned at the plan, Lightning couldn't use magic but she was insisting on going after the bigger opponent if there was one. It wasn't incredibly logical for someone who prided herself on being a well-trained, thought-out soldier. "If you need help, don't expect me to stay back here."

Light looked back at her sister warily before moving into the next room.

Thankfully, there was no edited super-villian in the next car. Everything went to plan, Lightning charged, used her gravity AMP and took out two guards while Serah opened fired on the couple rushing in from the sides. She killed two of them, while Lightning quickly dispatched the third.

It was then the sergeant hurried over to one of the bins. She threw it open almost angrily before she paused. Reaching down she plucked the Blaze Edge from the box, making sure it was still in working order.

"Miss it?" Serah joked, turning to see others coming up behind them.

One of them caught sight of the brand on Serah's arm.

"You're a l'Cie!" He roared, such an accusation made Lightning pivot, her gun switching into a sword.

The tip of which was resting on the man's neck.

"Put you're gun down." Lightning ordered, "Or I'll slit your throat."

"She's the enemy!" He gestured to the teenager, who looked ashamed. "She's the reason all this happened!"

"This happened because you fear a taint that doesn't exist, because you're all a bunch of Sanctum-controlled inbreds who cannot differentiate between right and wrong," Lightning snarled, the tip beginning to dig into the man's flesh. _Because I didn't listen… _"Now either you drop your fucking gun, or I will slaughter each and every one of you morons before you can even glance at my sister."

Her voice hadn't rose, it had grown quiet and deadly, her eyes twisting into icy orbs that cared nothing for the illusions in front of her. Serah had ducked in behind her, not wanting to get shot or in the way of her furious sister's wrath. Lightning's blade was slowly beginning to work its way through the man's neck.

"I'll count to three." Lightning glowered. "One…."

The group was beginning to murmur amongst themselves. They had seen what this woman could do, and an l'Cie, even a meek one, wasn't to be underestimated.

"Two…"

There were children in the group, but Lightning didn't care. They were nothing but figments of her imagination and Morrigan's little game. Killing them would only move her one step closer to her goal of waking up and getting back to her friends.

_"Three…"_


	6. Ready

_I owe all of you an apology. D: I can't really explain what happened but basically it threw me down in such a slump I didn't feel like writing anything. It was painful, as it wasn't even writers block, I had just suddenly lost interest in all I once enjoyed (commercials call that depressions but meh). Either way I'm better now. _

_I'm very sorry if this chapter is below par on the others, it was wrote to test out if I indeed enjoyed writing again. So if it seems filler-ish or just downright bad, I'm VERY sorry. Your comments and support were appreciated throughout the time of my absence, thank you very much! ^^_

_Chapter was beta'd by SinisterPurr!_

**Breathe**

**Ready**

"Was that smart?"

Fang didn't say anything in response as they headed down the corridor. Snow was beside her, looking over in hopes for an answer and Shiny was bringing up the rear. She knew what he was getting at and no, it hadn't been the most intelligent thing, leaving Vanille there to handle some operative by herself, but when she gets like that, there's no point in arguing.

"No," Fang finally replied, feeling the tension die between them a tad. "But I trust Vanille, she'll be fine."

The Orion made a sound that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. The tribeswoman shot it a glare before looking away. If Vanille wanted to man-up and take responsibility, then let her. She was a l'Cie, she had a few tricks up her sleeve, most of them involving brutal spells that could catch any soldier they encountered off-guard.

"We could've left her Shiny." Snow offered; he didn't much like the idea of Vanille dying because she bit off more then she could chew. "Give her a fighting chance."

"She'll be all right." Fang comforted with a confident smile. "This ain't the first time she has chosen to face her fears, last time she picked a dire flan."

Snow blinked. "Really?"

"It didn't go well."

"I can't see it going well for many people, least of all Vanille."

"She discovered flans' absorb their food into their bodies. I came to check on 'er and she was halfway out of the thing, kickin' and screamin' bloody murder." Both of them chuckled, rounding one of the corners to find the crystal was covering the walls like a thin sheet of ice.

"As terrifying as it was before," Snow ran his hand down the wall as he paused, admiring the crystal. "It's actually pretty, how it covers everything…" His eyes lowered to the ground, smile fading to nothing. "Almost like it's trying to protect everything it can."

Fang's eyes flicked to the ground, both their minds shooting back to Lightning. "Anima can't be far." The woman offered, tugging on a man's arm to keep going. "Remember, Light doesn't like to sleep for more then a couple of hours."

"Point." Snow grinned. "She finds out we let her sleep in, she'll kill us."

There was a silence between them as they continued, careful for any rogue Cieth that might've survived.

Fang's curiosity was getting the better of her. "What was she like before this mess?"

"Who?" He questioned, hands behind his head. "Lightning?"

"Yes, Light, I know the other girl." Fang frowned at his lapse in intelligence. "What was she like?"

"Couldn't tell ya, she didn't want anything to do with me."

Now it was the tribeswoman's turn to be confused. "She didn't like you?"

"She hated me, and I'm pretty sure she hates me still." He shrugged as if it didn't matter.

"How do ya figure?"

"I'm the complete opposite of Lightning," he offered with a soft exhale. "I'm optimistic, carefree, go-with-the-flow, and call myself a hero." His eyes seemed to glaze over as his thought continued; Fang raised an eyebrow at this. "She's cynical, pessimistic, beyond stubborn and she's actually a hero, or closer to it then I'll ever be. Light was completely devoted to the Guardian Corps…"

Fang shrugged, smirking at him. "Opposites attract, remember?"

Snow looked at her with a mixed expression of amusement and regret. "… Not this time."

"Oh, I forgot." Fang scratched her head a bit in embarrassment. "You're engaged to her sister, Serah."

"Yeah," the man nodded, breath hitching in his throat. "She's also the complete opposite of Lightning."

"She's like you?"

"Not nearly as out-going, and she has a bit of Light's reality-first syndrome, but yeah." Snow smiled as he remembered the girl's beautiful face. "More like me…"

"Sorry," Fang offered, pushing forward. "About what I said earlier, back on the ship."

Snow met the woman's gaze awkwardly, neither of them wanting to say the other was right. It was better for all of them to live in denial, soon enough they'd either be dead or sleeping anyway.

"It's all right," Snow smiled, nudging Fang playfully as he took the lead. "Come on, the sooner we find Anima, the sooner we can hurry back to Vanille and rescue her."

* * *

Vanille had come up with a cunning plan.

It was probably the best thing she had ever thought of, and it was full proof. Yes, it had taken a couple of explosive spells to set up, but now, up top her perch over looking the clearing, she was prepared. She grinned inside of her helmet, hunkering down in wait for the man who had encountered her back at Nautilus. Revenge would be sweet, they had made her break Sazh's poor heart, and now he would pay.

She knew the others would be back eventually and she really wanted this to work so she could prove she wasn't quite as incompetent as she appeared at times. Fang would be proud of her, the woman had tried to teach her how to hunt and lay traps back on Gran Pulse, but it had never worked out.

Now though, now she would make Fang proud. Oh yes, Snow would laugh and find it amazing, and Fang would wrap one arm around her and congratulate her on supreme trapping skills. She didn't quite know how the Orion would react but machines were hard to judge.

_Oh no, this will impress it too. It'll make a bigger bang than its cannon ever will. _She beamed inwardly, eyes narrowing as she stared at the archway entrance.

Her enthusiasm and attention notably waned as half an hour passed by. She swore if the soldiers used another entrance she would obliterate them with the might of her unforgiving magic. Plan B, one that was always caused by a surge of emotions and sudden enemy surprises. The last plan labeled 'B' involved a very angry behemoth and Fang shouting 'retreat!'

"Captain Desa's definition of 'soon' is contorted." She huffed, crossing her arms. "What happened? Did they all get lost?"

No sooner had she cursed the group of PSICOM soldiers did she hear them. They were talking to themselves, about various readings they were getting, none of them being l'Cie or Cieth. They sounded relieved, and soon enough all ten or so of them marched into the main chamber, pausing near the entrance.

_Bingo!_

Vanille got to her feet as quietly as she could and began to push. The giant piece of rubble she had dislodged from the rest of the ruined vestige was perched on the edge of her hiding spot, good three or four stories above the soldiers. She held in a groan, shoving with all her might.

It wasn't moving.

Vanille's eyes narrowed, and as she held her hands close enough, the temperature began to rise.

If it wasn't going to move the old fashioned way, then this required a special l'Cie touch.

The spell grew larger and larger before with a (not-so) mighty call, the fireball flew from her hands and smashed into the rock. It was sent flying off the ledge, tiny pieces of it raining down on the soldiers as they looked up at the noise. They yelped, one of them crying 'look out' before the rubble smashed down five of them. The other's scattered.

Vanille smirked, taking care to actually aim; she fired a shot across the room. The bullets pelted away at the support she had imposed on three other pieces of rock. And as the support broken and crumbled, the debris came tumbling down.

Three more of the soldiers perished, and the others now were beginning to catch onto Vanille's plan. But that was okay, because both of them fell when a furious storm of lightning came crashing down on them, making their bodies shake and twitch uncontrollably before they fell.

The plan had worked perfectly.

"Te he," she beamed; dropping whatever seriousness she might've had as the plan was in effect. She bounced down the side of the wall, landing with a light hop onto the vestige floor. "Safe for now."

"I know you."

Vanille froze, turning slowly back to the giant pieces of temple now blocking the entrance. She blinked, no one was there, not that she could see. Her skin crawled with the prospect that an operative had a leg up over her, and instantly her gun was up.

There was a crackle of energy before a lone PSICOM soldier appeared. Vanille blinked, how had he turned invisible?

"It's a cloak." He answered coolly, as if sensing her question. "You're the red-head from Nautilus."

The girl gulped, before removing her helmet. She stared at the man defiantly, eyes burning with anger.

"Inventive way to get rid of my back-up," he looked over at the debris and dead bodies. "But now you don't have any exit."

"You've seen my magic," Vanille hissed in return, hoping to sound intimidating. "I'll just create my own exit."

It was strange the man didn't seem to have a rifle or gun of any sort. It was then she noticed the two short swords strapped onto his back, hilts glowing a bright aqua and orange.

"Meaning… The man back at the airship… He's probably Sazh." Both of them began to circle. "I'm curious, how did Lightning complete her focus before any of you did?"

"You wouldn't believe me, even if I were going to tell you." The girl shot back, clutching the rifle.

Soldier chuckled, reaching up and unsheathing either blade.

"Try me."

* * *

She had been wrong.

That infuriated her, beyond compare really. She sat, in complete silence; her face twisted into something akin to the behemoth that had terrorized the l'Cie a couple of days ago. She was lucky her mask hide her face, because if anyone had seen her expression, they would've died from terror.

For whatever reason, the remaining l'Cie had instead ventured back to the beginning of their venture. The ruined vestige, which was crawling with enough PSICOM that someone would notice something was up. It annoyed her to admit it, but they had her beat. Whether they even realized it or not, Morrigan was on the sidelines until she could figure out a way to get there.

He would suggest the most direct course of action. If PSICOM chose to stand in the way, then they would be slaughtered. A firefight could give her a release for all her stress, because keeping track of Lightning and trying to figure out to get the last l'Cie needed (without making him sleep like the dear Sergeant) was stressful.

_How did Serah even manage to infiltrate the dream? _Morrigan cracked her knuckles, thinking to herself. _I got cocky, such mistakes allowed for the girl to interfere._

And now, Sergeant Farron was trying to wake herself up. A flawed plan, but her friends were up to something.

_Why go back to the ruined vestige? _

Her eyes widened as the answer clicked.

"Almighty Theoris…" She stood up and hurried down the hall, they needed an immediate course correction.

Surely, Anima was dead, and a dead god could do nothing, but there was still the chance that something might've survived. And if any of those rogue l'Cie found whatever it might be, the result could be the freedom of her only real power-point. Electricity crackled at her fingertips as the stress mounted with anxiety.

"Commander," the pilot nodded to her. They were heading back to base, something that had to change.

"Head to Lake Bresha," she ordered coldly, "And message headquarters, we'll need reinforcements."

"How much more?"

Her eyes narrowed, and that energy building up into her hand crackled to life as a static ball, hovering around her fingertips.

"As many men and airships as they can spare," Morrigan smiled thinly. "We're going to war."

The pilot smirked, nodded. "Yes ma'am."


	7. Set

_Next chapter, hopefully I'm getting back into the swing of things. :3_

_Thanks to ChobiChibi and SinisterPurr for beta'ing, also a special thanks to my friend Sam for helping me fix the dialogue. Hopefully they're more in character now._

**Breathe**

**Set**

"Exactly what level of hell did you blow this thing too?" Fang noted, bitterly, as they hurried down the steps.

It seemed that the lower level they wanted to get too was inaccessible from the other stairwell they had chosen. Not that it mattered; she had squeezed through just enough to see three things that concerned her:

**1)** Yes, it was a piece of the fal'Cie.

**2)** It was, or what appeared to be, the ass end of the fal'Cie. This in no way, shape or form helped the trio.

**3)** She could see Vanille fighting someone, and could see she needed help (not clearly, but there was a lot of magic flying up there and all she needed was a burnt out Vanille and some trigger happy PSICOM moron thinking he was all that).

So she had decided to hurry them along. Only that to reach the fal'Cie's face, they had to go under the crystal. This proved annoying, as the deeper they went, the more obstacles blocked their path. They were already beginning to tire and they hadn't even fought another yet. Shiny was the only one doing okay and that was because he was a bloody machine.

Fang wasn't happy.

_She bleedin' owes me when she wakes up from her nap.. _She thought bitterly, rounding the corner with haste. _I swear to the Maker if I don't get bloody well __**laid**__ after this excursion I'll __**kill**__ her._

"Fang look out!" Snow grabbed her arm before the angered woman tumbled straight off a cliff.

"Good catch," She smirked, looking back at the blond before turning her attention back to the cliff. "This, isn't helpful..." She leaned over the edge, staring down at the darkness below.

"Well, you wanted a quicker way down." Snow offered, jokingly of course.

"Well I was hoping for an lift, or maybe more… Stairs…"

"I'd prefer the lift."

Fang snorted. "Yeah, but… Fate seems to hate us."

"We're l'Cie."

"My point exactly.." She crossed her arms. "You think fate would cut us a break an' give us stairs?"

Snow shrugged, an amused smile on his face. "I can hope."

"You do that. I'll find another way down-"

There was a hum and then gunfire. Fang covered her head as Snow tried not to fall forward, the Orion was blasting a hole in the ceiling. Debris and large chunks fell around him, and in the pause between shots Fang managed to call out.

"Oi!" She grabbed the machine's cannon arm. "_Stop_ firing, you stupid piece of-"

Snow peered up, pointing. "He found a weak spot."

Fang blinked, pushing past Snow before staring up at the darkness. It was another floor, inaccessible because of the blocked staircase from before. Only one of them could fit though, and it sure as hell wasn't the lug Villiers or the oversized tin can she had following her around.

"_Brilliant." _She grumbled, turning to Snow. "Give me a boost will ya?"

He obliged, and in one easy push upwards Fang disappeared into the darkness.

"_Ow…"_

"You alright?" The man blinked, and watched as Shiny readied another shot.

"Low roof." The tribeswoman groaned. "Go back and help Vanille, won't take me long to check this out."

"I'm not leavin' you here alone, Fang." Snow crossed his arms.

"You won't be, Shiny will stay. Won't ya Shiny?"

The Orion hummed, and then moved a smidge out of the way of the defeated Villiers. He rolled his eyes, moving past the machine with somewhat of a glare before he looked back up to the hole.

"Hurry back, I don't know how long Shiny will wait before firing again."

There was a long pause.

"Don't fire unless I'm screaming bloody murder, got that?"

Another hum of acknowledgment, though Snow doubted the machine would listen. If it though Fang was in danger or needed assistance, it would override that command in an instance. He found that almost amusing, except for the fact that he had to leave her here, in some dark space the equivalent of an attic.

Helping Vanille, though, was the logical choice. With that, the blond hurried off, wishing Fang luck.

Her eyes quickly adjusted, something that Gran Pulse had gifted her with brilliantly. It was near disastrous to be on that planet and not have good night-vision, there were far to many things to run into. Vanille had a good set of eyes too, though honestly the girl could use to pay attention a bit more. Fang smirked, remembering how Vanille had almost ran smack into a King Behemoth and it's pups.

That hadn't been a good day. Getting her to move after fear had taken hold was one thing, not waking the monster before her had been another. Though honestly the tribeswoman had suspected the behemoth knew of their presence and just found it funny how daft either of them could be.

However, it was harder to see in this crawlspace of a room because of the sheer lack of any light. Gran Pulse had stars, moons, and reflective surfaces… This place had _nothing_, the only light that reached it was distorted and faded from the layers of crystal above.

So she was trapped in an infinitely small space with little light.

_Brilliant! Next lets try my luck in a small space while being accompanied by a catastrophe… _

Her pessimism made her smile; she was beginning to sound like Lightning. Of course Lightning would've gone up here, not hit her head and come back down, stone-faced with whatever they're looking for. She had no room for error that woman, and Fang briefly wondered how she acted when drunk.

_Getting her to drink that much would be a challenge._

Oh, that's an inspiring thought. Fang would make sure she lived through this experience just so she could get little miss Lightning drunk.

A devious plan.

It was a plan that would come into full swing when Fang freed her from her slumber and effectively demanded a reward. She was a greedy woman that way, payment in gil or favours (of the legitimate sort, not the fun, kinky ones she liked) would not do.

Not this time.

Not to say Fang would take advantage of a drunken Lightning, but at least then she'd see if Light ever decided to relax. The woman was always on edge, hell she was probably fighting in her sleep, to try and keep up her training.

But anyways, back to the searching for potentially magical devices.

Fang shuffled around, cursing numerous more times as she either stubbed her toe or bumped her head on something. Biting back a curse that escaped as a mere hiss, she bent down. Something was glimmering back in the far reaches of the cavern, something was had caught her attention. She dropped to her knees quickly, trying to make out what it was.

"Stupid… piece… of crap…" Fang grumbled, crawling towards the object. "What are-"

"_Fang?"_

She yelped, dropping flat onto her stomach as if to dodge the noise, hands overing her head.

"_Fang?_ _**FANG**__?"_

Reaching into her pocket she pulled out the controller, she blinked at it.

"Huh?"

"_**FANG?"**_

She pressed the small button that was labeled 'com'.

"Aye, I'm here Sazh. Stop shoutin' my name."

"_We've got problems, everyone's begun shooting at each other."_

"… What?" Fang shuffled forward, still going for whatever she saw.

"_There was some strange announcement by some woman, I think it was the chick who turned Light to crystal…" _Sazh paused for a moment, and Fang felt as if she had been stabbed. She didn't like thinking about how she had failed to protect Lightning, not that it was her personal duty, but friends looked out for each other..

_Just friends?_

"_Then everyone begins blasting away at each other. PSICOM is in an uproar; I have no idea who's winnin' anymore. I don't think we're safe, she must've figured out what we're doing."_

"How?" Fang snapped back, gritting her teeth. "_We _don't even know what we're doing!"

There was silence. _"I know but… We're trying, even if it's desperate… We're not just backin' down, which is what she wanted."_

Fang stopped, thinking. The silence around her seemed to close in, making her own, bitter thoughts seem louder. She had failed, hell they had all failed, and worse yet people had paid for it. That woman was coming back, and she had thrown PSICOM into chaos.

"Lift off." She ordered.

"_And go where?"_

"Here, come here. There's a main chamber that's covered in crystal, Vanille an' Snow will be there. We need to stick together, and keep Lightning safe."

"_They might shoot at me!"_

Fang smirked. "You're a pilot aren't ya? Or were you lyin' the entire time?"

There was a brief pause.

"_I'll be there, but you guys better ready. I ain't gettin' shot because you guys can't move it.."_

_

* * *

_

She was losing.

Badly.

Vanille huffed, her legs wobbled and she fell. She had lost her rifle a while ago, and all the magic she seemed to use just missed. The operative was fast; it was probably why he had survived the Nautilus encounter. Maybe he retreated or they were so caught up in the chaos that she never noticed him…

But he knew her, right down to her strategies. Nothing she had done fazed him. His own AMP technology allowed him to disappear and reappear at will, she doubted his techno-magic stopped there though, he just hadn't found a reason to use it yet. That angered her; that she wasn't even worth the effort.

"Time to end this…" His words held no remorse or guilt, he wasn't interested in mercy. L'Cie didn't deserve mercy.

_I don't deserve mercy._

His swords were blunt, powerful, charged batons that stung like a sonofabitch when they struck. He struck her hard on the spine, either weapon discharging a shock that made her give out a cry and collapse fully. She took it though, finding it easier then fighting to stay up.

Fang… Oh Maker Fang I need you…

Fang had always been there for her, but Fang had gone on to find a way to cure Lightning. Vanille had opted to stay, and for what? To prove to Lightning, who couldn't even perceive her, that she was strong? The girl had played herself for a fool, she had lied again, and this time the lie would cost her, her own life.

All the magic in the world couldn't fix the damage her lies had caused.

Vanille's eyes narrowed as they began to water.

All the magic in the world…

"Any last words l'Cie?"

The air was turning damp, and the humidity quickly began to rise. On Gran Pulse, giving up never did anyone any good. Fang wouldn't quit; she'd keep going. Everyone would, even Hope would keep fighting, for Lightning.

_I can't lose._

It wasn't just Lightning counting on her though, if she fell this stupid PSICOM bastard would have a clear run at Snow and her best friend. Shiny couldn't shoot what he couldn't see; the only way to wound the man was to hit the entire field.

So, that's what she was going to do.

"You treat us like animals…" She mumbled, eyes swirling with a blue hue. Her fingers trembled, as tiny droplets of water began to appear in the air, hanging there. "Like we don't deserve life…" Then the ground, it trembled, not nearly as strong as quake, but it caught his attention. He swung down, planning on cutting her off.

Vanille bounded, propelling herself up and just out of the way so she stumbled back. Her stumble turned into an ungraceful roll backwards. Before she warily came out standing, panting.

"On Gran Pulse, we're taught to swim in strong currents when we're small…" Vanille smirked, tears still streaking down her face. "I hope they taught you the same thing on Cocoon."

Then it came.

Water.

It was pouring in from every crack, it bubbled up from the tiny splinters in the ground. The operative hesitated, looking up, he screamed as a massive sphere of water slammed down onto him, smashing him down onto the ground. Amidst all the swirling, churning chaos of the spell, Vanille stood as still as stone, eyes emitting blue mist as she stared at her prey.

He was trapped, the waves had him. Throwing him about as he had done to her, without mercy, without regret…

The water spun up into a funnel, throwing him around and around before letting him drop back down. It wouldn't catch the operative; it let him drop hard onto the stone and crystal floor before picking him up again. Vanille tilted her head, watching as her spell mimicked her movements and threw him into a crystal wall.

The crystal cracked from the hit.

Then he vanished.

Vanille gritted her teeth. "Stop hiding!" Her shriek made the water splash outwards, catching him as he made a mad dash to stop her. "You're nothing but a coward…"

More liquid poured in, the droplets that hung in the air expanded into orbs that crashed down onto ground, making the volume of water double easily.

His AMP-tech fried, and he fizzled back into view.

"Face me…" She snarled, hands clenched, more tears falling from her eyes. "Face me coward!"

More water, churning and twisting into a whirlpool from hell itself. It blew over crumbling pillars and picked up debris, slamming him with it.

Snow was outright stunned by the sight he saw.

Vanille was yelling at a man who was probably too busy drowning to hear her. A massive funnel of water spun before her, taking up nearly all of the chamber. It had picked up anything and everything that _wasn't _Vanille, and now it was dancing on the edge of gobbling her up too. The energy pouring off the once innocent, adorable girl was wicked and electric blue, it made the air around her waver as it kept summoning water.

_Wateraga… _He recognized it from legends and myths, but never had he imagined he'd see the beastly move. Not even an Eidolon's spell carried that much power behind it. _Make note: Never, EVER piss off Vanille. Might be the last thing you do._

"He's dead…" Snow murmured, watching the limp body join the others. "Vanille!"

She didn't move at first, then slowly she looked at him.

"Snow?" She questioned, her voice resounding with magical energy.

"I… Well, Fang sent me back to help you but… You seem to have solved the problem…" He gulped; the water was towering over them both. "What happens when your spell ends?"

She looked confused for a second and then slowly turned back and stared up at the monster volume of water before it. It was still spinning, like a gigantic twister, but it was going to come crashing down when she stopped.

"Oooh…" Snow gulped, backing up a bit as he saw the girl waver and the water begin to spill over. "This is gonna suck…"

* * *

Fang had crawled all the way into the crack, forcing herself into a tighter and tighter space until she had the object in reach. Biting her lip until it hurt she reached forward desperately, fingertips gently brushing against the piece of metal.

"Come on," she felt it move slightly. "Come 'ere you bugger.."

And she had it; with one powerful yank she had the reward in her grasp, and quickly began to scoot backwards.

The woman ran her hand over it, feeling the indentations and shape of the object. She smirked, using a quick (and small) fire spell to light it up. Her smirk faded a bit as she felt surprise, she held in her hand a piece of a faceplate. With an eye-hole and yellow-bronze designs on it while the rest was an emerald green.

"A piece of Anima's mask," Fang hung her head and laughed to herself. "Guess that'll have to do."

There was a loud hum that gathered her attention. Blinking, Fang moved for the hole before jumping down, landing beside Shiny. The Orion was staring up the steps, cannon aimed and ready to fire at something.

"What's up?" Yun Fang pushed by him, but didn't see anything odd. "You are one paranoid mach…" She paused.

Her toes were wet.

Her grey-green eyes shot to her feet, and then focused on the pool of water forming.

"What the…"

There was a dull rumbling around them; that made Shiny fire a warning shot. The pool at their feet began to rise, quickly.

"Uhh Shiny…" Fang backed up, chuckling nervously as she tightened her grip on the piece of Anima. "I don't think that's gonna do much…"

She could hear it now, the rush of a violent, focused stream of water.

"Light, if ya can hear me…" Fang looked at the ceiling, her pounding heart resounding in her ears. "_Help_."


	8. Go

**Breathe**

**Go**

She hadn't killed them.

The gun had dropped to the ground, and then they had ran after the train inevitably crashed. The flying-scorpion-tank had appeared and with Serah's magic, it proved to be an easier fight then before. It obviously hadn't been expecting a full-blown l'Cie to actually be on the train.

But things were becoming twisted.

They had reached the vestige easier then before. It was too easy, and now Lightning was suspicious of the entire thing, Serah seemed to sense something was wrong. She couldn't put her finger on what, but something was definitely out of place. That troubled the sergeant, as she crept through the silent halls, eyes vigilant for something that could tip her off.

"Come on," Lightning urged her sister to move faster. They were heading up steps to one of the main platforms. "If we activate this platform, it should take us to Anima."

Serah nodded, hurrying behind her sister until they broke out on top. The entire area was a green hue, with soft blues and yellows inlaid into the floor for accents. There were other steps and platforms that lead here, and a small control panel on the opposing end of the area. Lightning however, was hesitating. She didn't trust this place, there was no cieth, no PSICOM or bio-weapons, the place was empty.

"What is it?"

"Morrigan…" Lightning hissed, her grip on her weapon tightening. "It's been too easy, she's up to something."

"If we move that switch, the platform takes off." Serah nodded towards it. "We'll be in the air, wouldn't that be a perfect time for an ambush?"

The elder of the sisters nodded. "She'll try to throw us off, or just break the platform."

"I can hold it together," Serah offered, biting her lip. "But, I don't think I could fight if I'm trying to hold the platform together."

Lightning couldn't hold back the question any longer. She hesitated, her mind not really wanting to know the answer. "Can you die?"

"No, well… Not technically…" Serah shuffled. "I'll be ejected from your dream though."

"So if she gets you, I'll be alone and have no magic." Lightning sighed. "_Super_…"

"So don't let her hit me?" Serah looked a little sheepish. "Simple enough?"

The sergeant didn't have the same optimism. "You obviously haven't fought any of her lackies before."

"No, but you have…. And you survived."

_I beg to differ. _Lightning thought bitterly, as she reflected on her own failure. "Let's get this over with."

She reached out for the switch, fingers gently resting on it. Was it really worth risking her sister's safety? If she was hit, Lightning wouldn't be able to see her sister anymore, and she'd be alone to fight Morrigan. Or whatever Morrigan had come up with, which was likely to be something absolutely horrible.

"Light," Serah began. The sergeant pressed the switch forward; there was a groan as the platform began to rise up. Serah moved closer to her instinctively, grabbing her arm. "I'm scared."

_So am I. _She thought with a stern face. Her gaze rose up, staring up at the darkness above them. "We'll be fine."

The darkness seemed to last forward before they broke through it. Both of them were shocked by the sudden change of location. It was the _Palamecia_, they were hovering over it as is streamed through the sky, with tons of smaller fighter-class airships around it, not to mention bio-weapons.

"Wow…" Serah blinked, dazzled. "Where are we?"

Lightning's eyes narrowed, watching all the enemies begin to swerve and head for them.

_Oh for the love of the fal'Cie…_

"Serah…"

"What?" She looked back at her sister, and then turned pale as she spotted all the enemies. "Uh oh… "

She grabbed her sister's wrist, anger boiling over into her face. "I thought you said Morrigan couldn't change anything big!"

"She can't!"

Lightning took another look around before she pulled them both closer to the edge. She gestured to the massive airship below them as she slipped the Blaze Edge back into its holster. "That would be a pretty big change!"

Serah couldn't argue with that, it wasn't like it was a simple memory change. They had combined two very different memories that didn't even happen one after another together. What was left of the vestige morphed, turning into an overview of the Hanging-Edge. At the horizon point it crudely mixed with the sky the _Palamecia _was supposed to be flying in.

"Lightning I don't know what-"

"Hold onto me."

Serah stopped, staring at her sister dumbfounded. "W-what?"

"Hold onto me!" She grabbed her sister's arms and wrapped them around her wrist for her. "Understand?" With that she shook another step towards the edge.

The girl's eyes widen and her grip suddenly tightened. Lightning winced a tad. "You're going to jump?"

The fighters were nearly in firing range.

"You have a better idea?" She questioned, the wind's howling made it hard to hear.

"Yeah!" Serah cried, eyes closing as Light's foot left the platform. She felt her body turn, and suddenly her stomach was screaming as they began a dive towards the _Palamecia_. "Don't juuuuuuuuuuuump!"

Her grip on the warrior's waist tightened. _Ow.._

Technically, she hadn't jumped. But Lightning assumed that Serah wasn't interested in the finer details of the plan. Turquoise bolts of energy shot by them as the enemy tried to snipe them out of the sky, and every so often a flying bio-weapon would zoom by, trying to eat them.

"To hell with Morrigan!" Serah roared; eyes tightly shut so she couldn't see how fast their landing zone was coming up. "_I'm _going to kill you!"

Lightning smirked, glancing back at her.

They nearly smashed into a low fighter, and the sergeant was thankful her sister hadn't been looking. She would've flailed or let go, causing both of them more problems.

"Serah, I need you to blast the deck!"

The girl opened her eyes slowly. "W-what?" Her eyes widened as she saw the _Palamecia_ coming up. "Lightning are you insane!"

"Blast the deck!"

"No!" She clung tighter, burying her head into the sergeant's frame. "I'd have to let go!"

"I'll make sure you stay close," Lightning offered, really not wanting to spend more time discussing this. "Just do it!"

"But-"

"Serah if you don't we're going to land on the hull of the ship and slide right off!" The woman hid her grimace.

_Or you know, hit it and… No that's the end of the story, right there._

Conceding, Serah slowly let go. She outstretched her arms before her, eyes nearly shut from fear and the wind. The only comforting notion about this entire debacle was her older sister was so close, keeping vigil that she didn't get blow away or shot down.

There was a spark, and the power began to gather. It was white and blinding, making aiming nearly impossible. Serah secretly thanked the stars that the _Palamecia _wasn't a small target, or they would've been doomed. No, as long as she hit it somewhere close to where it looked like they were going to smack down, everything would be okay.

Lightning winced at the shine, barely noting that the sphere Serah had summoned had now split into seven that were spinning around them frantically.

"Now Serah!" Lightning ordered, wrapped an arm tightly around the girl as she snapped her fingers.

The spheres shot past them. They spun closer and closer together before they smashed into their intended target. There was a brilliant glow before a shockwave of white and aqua energy rippled outwards, pieces of the PSICOM ship began to crumble away and turn to ash.

There was their entrance.

_Perfect._

The AMP-tech energy encompassed them both, allowing the sergeant to flip her and her sister over. Serah was still desperately clinging, even as they slowed down to a pace that wasn't going to kill them both.

"Serah…" Lightning looked down at her, taking out her gun.

"Y-yeah?"

"We're alive."

Serah's eye cracked open, and she scanned the scene. No soldiers, no fighters, no evil monsters of doom, just an empty room and her sister. She slowly let go, before glaring at Lightning.

"We could've died!"

Lightning tilted her head at her sister a little. "The platform would've been blown to pieces, so we would've been falling anyway." She shrugged, heading for a door. "And that's if they hadn't shot and killed us when we were up there, in here, all we have to fight is-"

The door hissed and opened, revealing a surprise.

Serah neared slowly, clamping her hand over her mouth as she stared into the dark room. There were red lights on the ceiling that spun as it announced intruders, but that was enough illumination to make out who was in there. The body was somewhat slumped and the person was forced to sit on their knees, fresh bruises and small open cuts all over their legs and arms. Slowly the individual looked up, eyes tired and red from tears.

Lightning's heart felt like it had been wrenched out of her chest. Her mouth turned dry and she lowered her gun.

"Hope?"

* * *

On the very long list of things Yun Fang never wanted to try, drowning wasn't high up. To be honest she had never expected to end up in a situation where she was dazed, lost and very very confused while being submerged. Of course, now that she was in this situation, she suddenly realized, in the foggy depths of her panicking mind, that it really should've been higher on the list. Drowning wasn't an especially dignified or pleasant way to go, and there was one question she really wanted answered.

Where the hell did all this water even come from?

All the water had been turned to crystal, was this suggesting that the effects eventually wore off inanimate objects as well? If that was the case then somewhere, some unlucky bloke who was curious about the glowing orange crystals found out that it was indeed crystallized _fire._

_Oh, that would suck too. Don't want that either. _She thought, amused suddenly by her sudden nonchalant attitude towards dying. _Probably should focus on that._

Shiny seemed as confused as she was, but he had loyally remained by her side. Fang frowned, finding the strength in herself she swam up to the hole, and found that it too, had been flooded. The Orion watched her, though if it was trying to hum anything to her, Fang couldn't hear. It realized this quickly, and began to gesture at what it was trying to announce.

It pointed its cannon at the ground.

Fang looked down, there were numerous cracks in the floor, and bubbles were escaping them. Lungs burning she moved down, pressing her lips up to the crack, she opened her mouth and inhaled.

She tasted dirty water, but best of all there was the brilliant emptiness of air. The burning subsided, and she looked around.

There was no way she could hold her breath and make it all the way up. She'd drown and then Shiny would probably go berserk and kill the others.

_Vanille! _Fang suddenly recalled. _Snow… Oh damn it all… _

She didn't know much magic, but she had picked up a technique or two from the time they spent adventuring. She blinked, eyes stinging from the water as she stared at the ground. All in all the vestige was ruined, it couldn't be that strong could it? If it were more stable, PSICOM probably would've sent in bigger machines and what-not to scour its depths.

But they hadn't.

Either implying the entire army was made of morons or this place wasn't stable.

_Both are likely; let's hope it's the latter._

She unhooked her spear from her back and poked the floor tentatively. This wasn't the best idea, but it was the only one she had.

As her lungs began to ache again, she smirked what could be her last smirk.

_Here goes nothin'!_

She slammed one of the points of the lance into the ground, and watched as a yellow shockwave shot out from it. Then there was an obscene amount of bubbles that rushed up, the cracks in the floor beginning to become much more apparent. Pieces of it rose up, and the walls began to crack and chip as the entire vestige violently shook.

Fang looked up, watching the ceiling begin to move.

_Yep, not a good plan at all._

_

* * *

_

Snow liked swimming.

Did he like swimming through a torrent of rapids that liked to throw massive chunks of debris, dead bodies, and other random things at him?

No.

_To be fair, unless your insane, not many people would enjoy that…_

Nor did he like swimming only with one arm. His other was clinging to a very tired, very wet and very confused Vanille who was coughing (and slightly flailing), as he desperately grabbed at an indent in the wall. The current pulled on him, wanting to tug both of them under and to their watery dooms.

Snow would have none of that. With the heavy groan he began to make his way away from the stairs leading to the lower corridor. This became notably easier when the water had almost completely drained into the lower levels and left nothing but a swallow pool for him to wade through.

He huffed as he put the girl down on one of the larger rocks that _hadn't _tried to smash him. He leaned against it; looking up at the redhead who was almost unconscious, she only muttered random things. Mostly having to reference to Fang.

_Wait…_

Snow's head snapped back to the lower levels entrance.

"Shit!" He cried, hurrying towards it. He tripped though, when a sudden shockwave ripped through the level. "What the…?" The man blinked, standing up. "What the hell was…"

There was an eerie cracking noise that slowly made him look over to the massive wave of crystallized water. A giant crack was slowly making its way through it, with tiny splinters and veins splitting off from it.

The ground lurched again, and suddenly Vanille was up, eyes half open.

"King Behemoth? Where? Don't eat me-" Her eyes, that had been focused on a rather amused Snow, then focused on the floor. "The ground.." She pointed at it, watching as the tiles began to shift underneath the rock she was on. "It's breaking… Snow what did you do?"

"What do you mean, what did I do-" Snow's eyes widen, they looked at the ground before he hurried towards her. "Vanille jump!"

The girl blinked slowly at him. "What? Why?"

"Just jump!"

She complied, slowly. Her feet just leaving the boulder before it fell through the ground. That seemed to wake her up, a new surge of adrenaline making her tired body function just a little better. She yelped as she clung to him, both of them watching as the entire chamber around them began to collapse and give way.

"What's going on?" She shrieked, clambering onto Snow's back. "Why is everything falling?"

"I don't know!" They were standing on a piece of the chamber that was precarious balanced on a single support beam. It wobbled a tad at Vanille's movements before straightening out.

There was another, ominous crack and they both turned their heads to the crystal water.

"No…" Snow gulped, knowing the ground they stood on was barely managing to stand with all the chaos around it. "Don't fall, don't fall, don't fall…"

In one giant explosion the crystal monument before them shattered and slammed down onto what was left of the floor. Their piece began to sway wildly, back and forth before it finally tipped, sending both l'Cie into a dizzying avalanche of water, debris and crystal.

The continuous, ear-shattering shriek of Vanille was almost funny as the two of them swirled around and around in a storm of debris. She clung to him like a lifeline, one arm around his head, covering his eyes and the other around his neck.

"Vanille!" He cried, barely managing to get enough oxygen to call over her screaming. "There are two problems with this scenario!"

She looked down at him, eyes wide. "Only two?"

"One! I cannot see! Two: I AM RUNNING OUT OF OXYGEN!"

Her arm on his neck moved up to be wrapped around his face like the other. He would've found this entire scenario amusing and inspiring: some idiotic lug with a teeny-bobber cleaning to his head in horror as she expected him to rescue him without line of sight. But only if _he _wasn't the moron with a screaming red-head glued onto his face.

Pure panic wasn't working; he needed help.

As best as he could, he focused all his energy into his core. The dark backs of his eyelids light up, even with Vanille covering them as he tried for a spell.

He felt the force move outwards, taking a form of a sleek crystal. He grabbed it harshly, muttering a prayer towards the twins before he tossed it and smashed it with his other fist. Vanille's constant cries seemed to drown away as the temperature took a dive; his skin tingled against the fresh, cool air.

There was a loud, thunderous roar of an engine before he felt the bike in his grasp. He clambered up onto it as fast as he could. Vanille's relentless clinging subsided as she sat down, instead choosing to wrap her arms around his massive frame. She pressed up against him, staring out at the sea of destruction around them.

Vanille watched in awe. "Everything is collapsing!"

With a rev of the engine the ice-bike took off. Leaving a cool blue trail of frozen water in its wake. They weren't out of the woods yet, this spiral was full of massive chunks that were obstacles in themselves, and they were all falling downwards towards a massive pit of ancient junk.

Which they were heading for.

"Woah," Snow pivoted the bike around skillfully, and the twins powered forward, against the current. "Nope, don't wanna go down there!"

"Fang!" Vanille patted him on the back before pointing. She was off to the ground, weakly clinging to one of the gigantic pieces of wall that refused to topple. "Come on! That wall won't hold forever!"

He swerved, twisting the bike so it defied more logic then it already had and ran across the width of a chunk of debris. The trail behind them was quickly shattered by a larger piece though.

The sisters hurried, zooming forward. Fang caught sight of them, in her mouth was a piece of metal, Snow presumed that was a piece of Anima.

The wall however, was betraying the woman, it began to move, slowly falling over as to try and squish her beneath itself and the avalanche.

"Hold on Fang!" The girl cried, patting Snow on the back as to hurry him along.

The wall was nearly halfway fallen when they reached her. It began to fall to pieces, and the tribeswoman lost her grip.

"Fang!" She disappeared underneath the swarm, Vanille's heart twisted. "FANG?"

There was an explosion, shattering a boulder before a familiar machine appeared, with a tired, spent woman slung over its shoulder.

The redhead beamed at the sight. "Shiny!"

_"Hey!"_

Their eyes moved upwards, seeing familiar, beaten-up skytank hovering over them. There was a hiss before the ramp quickly lowered, and Sazh appeared in the doorway, issuing the motorcycle and it's occupants over as the Orion jumped up and landing roughly on the ramping.

"Get your butt in gear!" He cried, almost losing his balance as the machine stomped by him, glaring protectively as it carried its master inside. "I.. Uh.. Why couldn't we get a _normal _friend?" Sazh questioned, with his arms crossed as the Shiva-bike leapt onto the transport, the two women separating as Snow and his companions were safe now. "You know, someone who ain't a l'Cie, who ain't a machine, and might, just might give us a break."

Snow smiled, his boundless energy was almost spent. His muscles and bones ached from the adventuring, swimming, surfing, nearly-dying and the off-road biking. He slapped a hand down roughly on the pilot's shoulder. "Oh, its not that bad."

"Says you," Fang hissed, looking at her leg. A piece of bone had pierced out from under her skin, and her entire calf was covered in her own blood that was beginning to dry. The rest of her body was covered in scraps and bruises. "Not all of us are the size of half the crap out there."

Snow rolled his eyes and watched as Vanille hurried as best as a dead-tired girl could.

"I'll get us outta here." Sazh nodded, "Close the ramp for me?"

"Sure." Snow's eyes hadn't left the two women. Vanille was desperately trying to heal Fang, but she had nothing left.

"Don't worry about it, I've had worse."

"Here." Snow looked over at Stiria, the darker skinned Shiva twin. "She can help."

The eidolon woman nodded, and silently moved towards Fang. Her smile was comforting and warm, like a mother's as she focused on the nasty wound. Easily a stream of green and gold energy flowed from her outstretched hand and wrapped around Fang's wounded leg.

The tribeswoman didn't even wince when the bone snapped back into place and mended itself accordingly. She stared at her arms, watching the small cuts and bruises fade away.

She grinned, looking up at Stiria. "Why don't ya come around more often? Could use a healer that doesn't get kidnapped or burn herself out."

"_Hey_…" Vanille pouted, before lazily leaning her head on Fang's shoulder.

The shiva sister smiled, before it turned into a small grin. She nodded to the two women before moving back towards her younger sister who had her arms crossed. When the two locked eyes, Nix just rolled hers and vanished, followed shortly by her elder sister.

Snow hit the button to close the ramp, and it was then he realized how cramped it was. Shiny was near the cockpit door, Lightning took up an astounding amount of space for a woman who was in shape. Apparently being made of crystal made her gain a few pounds and expand outwards.

_Oh, never tell Lightning that. I'll never make it through this._

They were running out of room, but he supposed the more the merrier.

"Hey Snow," Fang called his attention. She was leaning back against her seat. Her eyes half opened, her smirk still managed to carry that resounding confidence with it though. "Don't think to hard, I smell smoke."

"Ha ha," He rolled his eyes and sat down. He wasn't going to deny it; Fang was a visually appealing woman. Her skin was beautiful tanned, her body was something other women would probably envy and her eyes seemed to dance between mysterious gray-green and a deep, capturing emerald. An emerald he realized came out a lot when she was annoying or teasing Lightning.

Then a thought of both women crossed his mind and he quickly shut his eyes tightly and willed the image away. Apparently physical and mental exhaustion meant a wandering mind..

_Not what I need right now._

He was going to ask if she had found anything useful, but he could already tell she was asleep. She had slumped more, and her head now rested on Vanille's.

Besides, hadn't she? She had something in her mouth when he had spotted her in the vestige. His eyes darted, searching for the object before there was a hum from the Orion. It had apparently caught onto his thought and gestured to the plate sitting on the chair nearest him.

Snow smiled, "Thanks." Before he reached over and grabbed it. Inspecting it intently.

He was good with machines; he had fixed so many before all of this. But fal'Cie, there were like Eidolons, a strange combination between lifeless metal and a soul. He supposed being a machine gave them the convenient excuse they were truly designed to be better, and thus could afford to use people in such horrible ways.

Shiny wasn't like that though, but of course he had been programmed to consider them all friends.

"Hey Snow, better get up here."

He snapped out of his thoughts and hurried to the cockpit, peering out the glass.

"That's not good," he sat down in the co-pilot's chair, watching the chocobo land on his lap with a tweet. "Is it?"

Before them was a battle, a full out war between PSICOM and those who had, until recently, pretended to be the Sanctum controlled group. A sleek, white airship was lowering down, blasting at the skytanks that were still landed. The two men exchanged worried glances, glad that it hadn't noticed them yet.

It began to turn though, and it was only a matter of time before it saw the lone skytank, by the vestige.

"Nope," Sazh offered, turning the controls sharply. Their skytank swung around, and powered off, intent on putting as much distance between them and the evil woman as possible. "Not good at all, I vote, we avoid the bullets."

"Agreed." Snow nodded, glancing back to make sure Lightning was okay. "I hope this works."

"Me and you both," Sazh thought about his brand instinctively. "We can't ignore our focus forever, l'Cie live on borrowed time."

Villiers didn't reply, he just stared down at the chocobo who was watching the clouds go by quickly as they made their escape. He didn't want to think about if this didn't work, he just wanted hope to be enough, but if they had to let Lightning go and stay as a crystal statue…

He wasn't sure what he'd do, but somebody would pay, dearly.


	9. The Deal

**Breathe**

**The Deal**

Shiny never got confused; well not before it met this very odd group. There were numerous things that should've alarmed it that they were not PSICOM, and though those triggers did go off, it felt compelled to override its most basic safeguards, and ignore the blatant fact in the back of its processor, something was screaming at it to shoot every single one of them.

Perhaps before Mistress Fang revealed her true nature, it could feign ignorance. It was, after all, a simple machine with simple thought. However, when she had promptly shown no mercy to backstabbing the other soldiers, then dared the depths of a forbidden Pulse-fal'Cie vestige to find a piece of scrap metal, and then was (almost) saved by a man who just summoned an eidolon, no longer could the poor, confused Orion keep up it's façade.

Not that any one of this l'Cie even noticed it's low hum of disapproval, they all thought all sounds were alike. It supposed, given adequate time, they would eventually come to realize that the lower the tone, the more disapproving their machine-ally was being.

But they had caused a small malfunction in its brain of sorts. One pattern was disrupted, and now it kept repeating and kept dislodging all the laws PSICOM and Sanctum had programmed into its metal skull. Hardly anything was left, the only thing that remained to govern the machine was the simple idea of right and wrong. It had, for the last couple of hours, watched over the others as they slept, and pondered over their actions.

They were trying to save their friend, a male-child named Hope and seemed oddly attached to a rather icy statue.

Humans, were… _Strange_.

Lets not forget that they had all decided to name it Shiny.

Humans were strange, and keen on pointing out the obvious, it seemed.

Mistress Fang had been quietly sleeping for the last couple of hours, the pilot (a rather odd human with a chocobo in his hair… Shiny noted in the recesses of it's memory core that keeping a living creature in one's hair could _not _be sanitary) had landed on one of the sturdier, remote bridges of the Hanging Edge. There was still fighting going on here, but slowly PSICOM was overcoming the rebels.

It felt a pang of _something, _but it wasn't sure exactly what that something was. Its guard duty was coming to an end though, its master was awakening, grumbling her sleep something about how Gran Pulse was nicer than such a place. She blinked wearily, surprising soft eyes focusing on the machine before they hardened and turned lively.

"Not gonna sleep, Shiny?"

Not that it could sleep, it didn't require maintenance so there was little point to it 'sleeping'. It remained silent as she stood, and Fang apparently took that as a no. She shrugged, moving past the guardian.

"You think this'll work?"

Logically, it noted, no. If they were relaying on fables, magics and myths, the chances were significantly higher. Shiny chose to give a short, quiet hum to show its indifference on the matter. Mistress Fang frowned at it, before picking up the scrap metal.

"Can't imagine what she'll do when she sees you," Fang smirked, though it was half-hearted and sad. Shiny found that its computing cycles much preferred the over-confident, cheeky Mistress Fang to the miserable one now displayed before it. "Try and shoot ya, I imagine."

That did not sit well with the machine. It raised its cannon arm and aimed it at the crystal statue. Mistress Fang flipped, shouting nonsense at it before hastily grabbing it's arm and lowering it down.

"She's not the enemy," The woman frowned, eyes narrowing dangerous. "Don't _ever_ do that again…"

It nodded, but it made no sense to it. Could it not defend itself against the icy statue? It decided that emotions were coming into play, those always made humans of any description rather hard to understand.

At that remark, the Mistress sat down on one of the seats, staring up at the statue somewhat hopelessly. Her eyes, diluting from brilliant emerald to a dull, sad gray-green, resolved to stare at the floor as she muttered things to herself. Shiny moved closer, remembering that when humans did it, it usually comforted the species in some way it would probably never understand.

It seemed to work, Fang looked up at him, a small, but genuine smile on her face.

"I don't know how to wake her up," she admitted, standing near-silently before approaching the statue. "The fal'Cie willed the two of us to wake up before…" She seemed to be more thinking to herself rather than discussing with Shiny.

Fang abruptly left the ship, lowering the ramp loudly. Shiny would've blinked if it were able, watching curiously before it quickly followed.

"I know you can hear me." She spun around, taking in this strange place. So many bridges crossed over each other, it reminded her of the jungles on Gran Pulse, where there were deep ravines and fallen logs crossed each other in them, falling deeper and deeper into the black before you dared to go no farther. "I'm talkin' to you!" She cried, her voice almost echoing in the expanse. "Don't just play dumb! You want Cocoon to burn? You want us to destroy it!"

She threw the mask shard to the ground, and it clanged against the metal and stone road. Fang had no doubt in her mind that it was likely the others were waking up to her going insane, shouting to no one in the Hanging Edge, but she didn't care. The fal'Cie were always watching, always listening, they knew where their tools were all the time.

"Then time to own up, one of yer own has screwed us! And you just sit in silence!" Fang growled, eyes shining dangerously. "This world will burn, I promise ya that. But it'll only burn because I'll murder each and every one of ya.." She pointed at the broken mask, discarded like garbage. "That's proof of what humans can do, 'magine what a l'Cie can do, with the power YOU gave me."

There was a swift rush of air before a small, silvery owl sat on the ground before the Pulsian woman. It stared at her, critically eying her as if to see if she could back up her own threat. Fang grunted, she wasn't one to use magic, but rage came over her too quickly to control it.

Wisps of flames danced around her arm and then traced her finger tips before a fireball the size of a beach ball flew towards the bird. Its eyes went wider for a second before it fluttered out of the way, using it's wing to shield itself from the small pieces of rubble the spell sent flying when it hit the ground.

"What is it you want of us?"

That voice, it was cruel, cold and ever dominating as the fal'Cie's presence was felt more than seen. Fang growled, eying the landscape like a behemoth looking for its next meal.

"Barthandelus…" Fang scowled, and suddenly found Shiny at her side, cannon arm charged and ready.

"It's amusing that such a machine would succumb to the imperfection humanity spreads so easy." The voice hovered in the air. "I grace you with my presence l'Cie, don't waste my time."

'_Oh when we finally get to kick yer ass, I'll be the one driving my spear through your ugly face..' _Her guard never dropped. "Wake up Light."

"You make such demands, your kind scorned our last ones. What makes this so different?"

Fang gritted her teeth. "You want Orphan to die? Then wake up Lightning."

There was silence, before the human form of the fal'Cie appeared. He looked like a grumpy old man, dressed in robes that did nothing for him, long fingernails and a hat that made him looked like a rejected bride. The Pulsian imagined her concept of him was fogged over by hate, mistrust and general rage, but she didn't much care.

He stood opposite of her, his familiar landing beside him.

"What makes you think you can issue such orders to-"

"That," Fang gestured to the broken mask. "Don't act all high and mighty, your kind can die just like the rest of us."

The Primarch audibly growled, probably in frustration. He never had much patience for defiant humans, especially Pulse-borns.

"One dead Pulse fal'Cie proves nothing but your own betrayal."

_**Gran **__Pulse, you pompous ass…_

"Funny note: I never touched Anima, I'm just itching for my chance to kick your ass again." The tribeswoman was tiring of the man's distractions. "Either free Lightning, or you'll never see the Maker."

"I'll make more-"

Shiny didn't wait another second; he fired, catching the bird off guard. It was obliterated in the resulting blast. Galenth, or Barthandelus, looked utterly shocked. His eyes wide for a second before anger took over. He glared hellfire and brimstone down on the machine. Fang had no doubt that the damn owl would be back, but that had gotten her message across.

"No," Fang smiled darkly. "_You_ won't. Maybe another fal'Cie, another day… But you'll never see your precious Maker, I promise you that."

The old man snorted, and summoned the piece of Anima to him. His looked at it, hardly interested in it before it disintegrated in his hands, turning to green dust before that vanished.

"You can afford to ignore your focus," he eyed the scarred brand on her shoulder. "Which is the only reason I'm even giving this any thought." He seemed to think he needed to clarify, he wasn't doing this because Fang had convinced him, he was doing it because he had something to gain. "I'll give you a new focus then, kill the treacherous fal'Cie, and Lightning stays alive."

"_Alive?" _

"Yes." Barthandelus smiled, maliciousness emanating from him. "Fail, and you'll wish you'd left the woman in her slumber, and she won't be the only thing your failure takes from you."

_Vanille…_

"I promise you that." The fal'Cie awaited her answer.

She didn't really have an option; Fang grunted her reply, nodding to the man before her brand burned. She roared in protest, grasping it as the burning energy seared her entire limb. Shiny, seeing its master in pain, opened fire, the shot easily being blocked by the fal'Cie's magic.

He disappeared shortly after, leaving the wounded l'Cie. Fang groaned, wincing as she stood. Removing her hand, she looked at her once ruined brand. It had been replaced with a considerably smaller mark that was black; a simple arrowhead point down.

She frowned.

_Oh, Light's not gonna like this._

"Fang?"

_Neither is Vanille._

"What happened?" The red-head hurried over, giving the dark-haired woman a suspicious look when she smiled weakly. "What's wrong?"

"Nothin', I just…" She looked over her shoulder, seeing no one. Had he lied to her? If he had, he would never see that 'treacherous fal'Cie' defeated. She would just ignore her new focus and-

"Your brand…"

_Aw hell. _

Fang gritted her teeth, looking sheepishly away as Vanille ran her fingers over the tiny brand. She didn't recognize it, staring at it with such curiosity before she frowned.

"It's not Pulse.."

"No..." Fang refused to look at her, guilt tying around her heart. "It's not, it's Cocoon."

"What's your focus?"

The seriousness in Vanille's tone surprised the woman, so much that she instinctively looked over at her younger friend. A small shock of a noise escaped the Pulse-born's lips, seeing the concern all over the girl's features. She didn't want to see that, all she wanted was Vanille to smile and keep upbeat.

"To kill a treacherous fal'Cie." She admitted, there was no sense in hiding it. "The one that's got so many super-powered lackies after us."

Vanille chuckled quietly. "Count on you to pick a fight with a fal'Cie."

"You implyin' they're outta my league?"

"No." The girl smiled, turning as the others came to investigate. "We didn't know if we should come out, you sounded so angry.."

"I'm better now," Fang wrapped a strong arm around the girl's shoulders. "Made a deal with the devil, all I needed."

Vanille rolled her eyes, burying her fear. "Didn't you make one of those with the elder once-"

"_That_," Fang placed a gentle finger to the girl's pink lips. "Shall not be spoken of, right?"

The red-head was grinning now. "Right."

"Hey!" Sazh drew the attention back to him, before he pointed inside the ship. "She's shimmerin'!"

Fang was somehow the first inside, despite both Snow and Sazh being considerably closer. She stood dumbfounded, watching wisps of white and blue light dance around the statue, the crystal surface gleamed with a benevolent glow, the light it was giving off was bright but not at all harsh.

Fang held her breath, eyes widening as the crystal stalagmite began to fade away. The effect was spreading throughout the crystalline substance that wasn't needed, eating away at the surface and turning to dust that looked like thousands of stars floating around the sleeping beauty.

_Light…_


	10. Ultima

_Right then, I have returned from my silence to bring you another chapter a little sooner then probably everyone expected. I hope you enjoy, and as always, your reviews and opinions are welcomed. :3 Chapter eleven is complete as well, and I've begun XII, hopefully this writing streak will continue! X3_

**Breathe**

**Ultima**

This entire scenario was beyond her comprehension though, Lightning, as concerned as she was for the boy, found herself scowling as she helped him up and out of the reddened closet. The trio stood in silence, as their apparent leader contemplated exactly what to do. Or that's what they were assuming she was doing, to be honest, she was doing nothing of the sort. She has resigned to try and _not _understand how exactly Morrigan or something crazy-mage was messing with them.

If she did think about it, it made her head hurt and she had enough of a headache trying to get out of this maze of memories. No, there was no sense trying to understand anything, just go with it and survive each and every scenario they could come up with.

"Light..."

Hope's shaky voice broke her thoughts and she looked over, not even aware at how annoyed she looked. Her features lightened when he moved towards her and hugged her tightly. Lightning blinked, her arms slowly uncrossing and drifting down to cradle the boy somewhat, frown disappearing as sheepishness broke though.

"I'm sorry I failed..." He whimpered, his voice muffled by the fact he's head was buried into her overcoat and body. "I.. It happened so fast..."

"Hope," One of Lightning's hands went and placed itself on the back of his head, turning her awkward touch into more of a comforting hug. "It's not your fault, it's nobody's fault."

"The others.. They promised to free you." He pulled away enough to look up at her with sad, desperate eyes. "I went with her, the woman. I don't remember what happened after, I just know... She was going to kill you."

"Believe me she hasn't stopped trying." Lightning frowned, looking up to see Serah investigating the room. "What is it?"

"Where is everyone?" The girl questioned, looking back at her sister. "Shouldn't there be soldiers?"

"There should be." Lightning answered flatly, ignoring Hope's proximity after he released her. She understood he was afraid, but even when she was awake, he had a habit of sticking close. It was cute (not that she would ever admit this) but also annoying. She thought about it, before she scanned the room.

_Nothing? _Lightning had to admit to herself, that was really odd. She suppressed her blank expression behind one of determination, she needed to at least look focused. _Odd.._

"We should try and find a way out of here." Serah offered. "This is an enemy ship, right?"

Lightning nodded, unsheathing the Blaze Edge so she was armed with a rifle. Hope winced as he moved, following their leader as she chose one of the doorways that gave a small hiss as it opened up into a larger, green and black room that had teal orbs on the walls for light. The door shut with a louder sound then the soldier deemed necessary and she turned to look.

It was a wall now, and the hallway grew a little larger.

"Hn," The noise of irritation escaped Lightning. "This isn't going to be good."

"Light..." Hope gulped, pointing forward.

She turned, almost reluctantly to see what exactly was there, staring them down. She wasn't surprised, no anger, just a subtle irritation that didn't manage to ruined her focused appearance. She pointed her rifle defiantly, staring the monster down as it spun it's duel-bladed sword, rising up a tad.

_Odin... _She thought, shaking her head. _I saw this coming. "_You'd do well to move, Odin."

The knight's shield slid down on his arm, locking in place as he took a stance, blade beginning to spark with electric energy. It waited a second before it charged, spinning the sword at a bewildering speed before he whipped it forward. All three of the targets dodged, Lightning felt the stray arcs of electricity hit her, making her skin tingle and burn with pain before it moved on, sweeping over Hope who had dived for the floor and Serah who leapt back, slamming her back painfully into the wall, but avoided the blade.

Then Odin was there, crashing between the three to retrieve this blade. Lightning reached down, grabbing Hope and pulling so hard she threw him to the other side of the room. He grunted, rolling callously, but he was away from the Eidolon as it rose up and went for the soldier. She bit back a groan as her weapon switched to a sword just in time to block a slice but got electrocuted as the two pieces of metal connected.

The betrayer went for a swift smack then, with his shield. Lightning leapt, landing on the object before she jumped up, twirling before she brought her blade across Odin's metal face. The Eidolon didn't make a sound as she landed a hit, just narrowed his eyes before followed her, turning around and going for a swing as the soldier landed.

Lightning turned and prepared herself, the sword again smashing into hers, only to have her body become a conduit for thunder magic. Her knees shook as it coursed through it, dancing through the sergeant before it zapped and made static energy on the metal floor.

There was a flash of light, and a cascading boom before Odin was thrown back a couple of feet. Serah stood, panting, white traces of magic moving around her.

Being hit with a spell didn't seem to bother Odin at all. He charged, before more of the energy encircled the mage and threw the assailant back again.

"Leave her alone." Serah stated, though her voice was shaky. Lightning looked at her, a confused frown on her face.

Odin scoffed, before a bolt of lightning flew from his hand to Serah. Sending the poor girl flying back into the wall, slumping into unconsciousness.

Lightning's confusion quickly vanished, and turned into pure loathing. She was upon her summon even before he could blink, her blade smashing into every piece of the metal warrior she could find before she bounced over his shoulder, making her weapon transform midair so she could deliver a cheap-shot to the back of the Eidolon's head.

The knight came again, swinging long so the sergeant was forced to nearly break her back evading the move. A powerful, strategic kick from Odin sent her flying so she landed well past Hope, who had recovered some of his energy. He glared at Odin, calling upon all his strength, the wind returned, dancing around the boy before it rocked forward as a powerful twister. Odin paused, bracing himself through the strike, but small pieces of its armour broke off in the assault.

The Eidolon stabbed his blade into the ground, eyes glowing a bright, eery yellow and between his palms electricity began to dance. The air was turning dry and Hope knew he was in for it, the spell was so bright his couldn't even see it coming. He felt the air turn hot, and then someone roughly shoving him.

He hit the wall, but that didn't falter his brain from recognizing who had just taken the shot.

"Lightning!" He cried, watching her battered, burned and smoking body wobble and fall to the floor with a thump. Hope ran for her, dropping to his knees and sliding the rest of the way, despite the pain his body was in. "Light?" He questioned, gently touching her charred, smouldering hair. "Lightning?"

Her eyes didn't open, her mouth didn't move.

* * *

Serah grunted, her mind was foggy and her stomach stung like she had laid down on a hot stove. Her eyes moved under their lids, before slowly the dark veil was lifted and the scene was displayed before her. Odin was temporarily halted his assault, he stood a small distance from Hope and Lightning.

Her eyes widened in horror.

Lightning was down, her body obviously reached its limit. She looked like she had been thrown in a bonfire. Hope was there, a desperate but weak cure spell flowing from his hands into Lightning's unmoving chest.

_She's not breathing, she's not moving.. No, no she can't be..._

Tears overtook her, and she gulped as she stood. Her breathing was uneven, as she hiccuped in her miserable state. Her hands shook with something she didn't realize. It was something the happy girl had never felt before, never in her life.

Rage.

Rage that twisted around in her gut before it made it's way up, like a constrictor. It slithered around her heart, wrapping around it and mercilessly clenching it before what felt like thousands of tiny veins spawned from it, slinking through her limbs and settling just under her skin.

"Claire..." She whispered, her eyes, which she hadn't realized she closed, opened and slowly drew up. Memories danced before her, before her favourite one settled.

"_I liked your name." The teenager crossed her arms as she sat on the couch. Watching as her elder sister went about making something for dinner in the kitchen._

"_That's nice." Her sister had scowled, glaring at the girl. Serah ignored the anger and watched as her sister went from annoyed to serious. "You can't call me Claire anymore, I'm Lightning. It's been years, why bring it up now?"_

_Serah had frowned, crossing her arms miserably. Her sister could be such a drag, she had left her name behind long ago, but Serah had always assumed her strict sister would at some point, take up her old name and be happier. She paused, uncrossing her arms to play with her ponytail as she thought. "Is it a play on words?"_

_Lightning briefly halted her assault on the tomatoes and turned to face Serah. "Pardon?"_

"_Lightning, Eclair means Lightning. If you rearrange Claire, you get Eclair." She stated bluntly, she began to giggle at her sister's put-off expression. "So either you were clueless, playing on words, or you really like pastry treats..."_

"_Serah..." Lightning put down the knife and moved into the open living room, she stared at her sister dangerously. "Don't you-"_

"_I'm going to call you Eclair." She beamed, standing up to meet her sister's challenge. "I like it, and technically, I'm still calling you Lightning..." Serah paused, enjoying her guardian's dumbfoundedness. "Maybe I'll tell Snow..."_

"_Don't. You. Dare." Lightning moved closer as Serah began slowly for the door. _

"_He'd like that, I bet he'd tell all his friends..."_

"_**Serah,**__" Lightning growled. "I'm warning you don't you- HEY!"_

_Serah dashed for the door, grasping the handle and wrenching the door open before she sprinted and jumped onto the sand. She wasn't wearing any shoes, and she was secretly thankful she had made the bound between the porch and the small amount of pavement. _

_Lightning was out the door right after her, easily clearing the pavement with more grace than her younger sister. The jump had settled some of the distance between them, and seconds afterwards the girl was tackled to the sand, laughing as Lightning grabbed her flailing arms and flipped her over._

_Claire, as that who she was at that point, with a content expression, watched Serah break out into laughter. She blinked, a small smile creeping onto her lips before her body involuntarily followed her sister's example._

_Lightning-Claire-Eclair, was laughing._

She wanted to see her sister laugh like that again, and that _thing _meant to protect the sergeant, had stolen that chance.

Energy gathered around her, and she felt it move inside her, dancing around and mixing with her rage, misery and hate before it formed into something. It felt so strange to her, she looked down, watching as a pristine crystal phased out of her heart, glinting with silver wisps and looked just like one of the stars she loved so much. It had seven points, and hovered before it before it moved upwards, hanging just above her face.

She reached up tentatively and touched it, mesmerized by its beauty and gleam.

It shattered, and the energy exploded outwards before it transformed into a massive ripple that shot back towards her, dancing around her before it shot up into the ceiling, a giant glyph dancing there before the silver stars and black sky could be seen.

Then Serah watched a woman drift down, she had really nothing on, with white, shining skin with a silver gleam. Her feet touched the floor gently, landing with grace no human could ever hope to have. Six, massive, mechanical angel wings shielded the angel's body, hiding most of her figure and her face as they curled around her. They were a bright orange, fading to gold and then white.

Odin turned, clutching his sword. He braced himself as a rush silvery wind blasted away from the new force as she thrust open her top two sets of wings. She wore a elongated helmet, that hid her eyes behind a white energy bar. Long purple tendrils that Serah assumed was supposed to be hair dance behind the angel's head, spawning from the back of the helmet.

Her body may of been mechanical, but only a fool would call the Eidolon standing before the tired heroes anything but beautiful.

"Ultima..." Serah spoke quietly, the woman looked at her, nodding. Serah looked over at the lifeless Lightning. "Please help her... Please..."

Ultima looked over, with a wave of her hand Odin was thrown out of her way so she could see the wounded sergeant. Slowly she outstretched her hand, and golden energy travelled from her to the burnt body. It dived into Lightning through her nostrils and mouth, and a millisecond afterwards she was gasping, stiff body began to breathe raggedly.

"Ugh... H-Hope..." Lightning croaked, reaching up and grabbing his scarf. "H-have I woken up yet?"

"No..." Hope admitted.

"... Of... C-course not..." She moaned. She blinked, blurrily staring at the magnificent being before her. She didn't say anything, just let her head fall back onto the floor, utterly beat.

Serah's hands were clenched tightly into fists. "Now end it, end the betrayer." Her voice, so seething with anger barely managed a whisper.

Ultima was nothing like the Shiva sisters, while the elder could be called a kind soul, tempered by age and wisdom, and the other had the youthful vigour and bravery expected of a young warrior woman. Ultima was neither of these things. She stood on a foundation all her own, she was justice, fairness and truth all in one. The guiding light, the path of perfection wasn't an easy one, and Ultima was probably the only soul, human or not, to ever reach the end of that chosen road.

A higher being, even to other Eidolons, she pointed gently at Odin, half interested in his futile attempts to escape the unseen hold. She tilted his head, and Serah wondered briefly if she was asking why he would betray his own chosen. Whatever the answer was, it didn't seem to sway her actions much, her pointed hand slowly formed a fist.

Odin struggled as the pressure around him doubled, tripled, quadrupled before finally he exploded into light. Crystal shards flying everywhere before they vanished.

She rushed for her wounded sister, collapsing down on her knees on the opposite side of Hope. Lightning gazed at her weakly, her expression neutral. Serah knew that facade, she was hurting, more than she'd like to admit. Lightning didn't like to lose, she had been trained and practically raised by the army, losing wasn't an option.

"Claire..." Serah whispered, a sad smile on her face.

Briefly Lightning's body shimmered, and the younger girl beamed. She had a grin on her face as the _Palamecia _shook and began to shift and change. The four of them zoomed through the sky, brushing through the clouds before they could see Palumpolem in the distance. The sergeant looked confused for a good minute, the sight of the memory shifting confused her.

"What's going on?" Hope blinked, seeing his home city nearing. "Why are we...?"

"I'm waking up." Lightning admitted, wincing as Serah helped her sit up. "They kept their promise."

Hope looked relieved, but his peaceful expression changed suddenly when he realized he'd be without the woman who had been looking out for him. Lightning caught onto the fear, and weakly put a hand on the boy's shoulder, she could feel herself beginning to heal.

"You'll be fine." Lightning smiled softly, something she knew he'd appreciate. "Serah will keep you company."

Serah nodded, a small grin breaking onto her face. "We just gotta keep ahead of Morrigan."

"You can do that, can't you?" The sergeant eyed her pupil, narrowing her gaze a bit. Hope thought about it briefly, he honestly didn't want to be brave anymore, but if it meant escaping this place and seeing Lightning again, he would sum up every ounce of courage he had.

"She won't know what hit 'er." Hope smiled, nodding.

"Will I remember?" She asked her sister, as Hope's memory settled and had them laying in the middle of the square, people staring at them oddly. "Any of this?"

Serah thought about it, before slowly shaking her head. "N-no... Maybe you'll have an inkling, but..."

"Look at that!"

"What the hell is it?"

The crowd had taken notice of Ultima, who turned her attention to the encroaching Guardian Corps. soldiers. They were already onto the them, and the dream had barely even begun.

"You two..." It became hard to talk suddenly, Lightning's lungs were burning. "Are... Off to..." She gasped, clenching her sister's hand. This felt especially like dying, even as the burns faded away and the make-believe scars vanished. "T-to... A g-great... Start..."

She slumped, eyes staying open. Her lifeless stare went up to the sky, it was dark, with stars shining high above.

"L'Cie!" Cried one of the soldiers.

Serah glared over her shoulder. She had to keep Hope safe, she told Lightning she would.

"Ultima..." She whispered, and the angel's two sets of wings rushed opened once again, blowing a good portion of the crowd back. Her blue eyes settled on Hope, who was standing, wind dancing around him already.

"Ready?" Hope asked, eyes glowing a mix between white and yellow.

Seven spheres surrounded Serah, spinning faster and faster. "Let's go."


	11. Home

**Breathe**

**Home**

_Have you ever spent a long time away from your home and friends, and found throughout that time you began to realize that you appreciate and enjoy their company more than you thought? Someone at work asked me this once, my answer was a cold 'No.'_

_I finally experienced it, well into my journey of being a l'Cie. I didn't remember where I had gone or where I had been, only that seeing their faces made me feel happy. Even if I didn't act like it. _

_

* * *

_

Drifting through darkness wasn't something Lightning particularly enjoyed. She didn't feel anything, and to be honest, if she stopped thinking she was pretty sure she would cease to exist at all. It felt like she was in a river, moving with an unseen current in whatever direction it wanted to pull. Faintly Lightning recalled her last near death experience, and for the briefest of moment she could remember this exact feeling somewhere between a strange dream and the waking world.

She was acutely aware she hadn't died though, she had been sleeping. Or that's what she hoped. Her hope seemed to pay off, as distantly, she could hear things, muffled things, but things none the less. Feeling was quicker to come back than her other senses, she could feel someone's warm body up against hers, she could feel her lungs burn as they refused to work for oxygen, and her hands slightly twitch.

"Come on, Light..."

That voice was very distinct in her mind and the allure of the accent caught Lightning off guard. She felt her imagined lips twitch into a smile, and then she buried it. She had no control over her body at the moment, it may, or may not listen to her.

_I can't breathe..._

Then's when she felt her head being leaned back so her airway felt open. Her hands twitched again, trying to grab onto the smooth, silky sari that she felt so close. Someone was pinching her nose shut, and inwardly she nervously waited for the next moment. As she knew what was coming when someone's gentle finger opened her mouth.

Soft, plush lips pressed against hers, and she felt the rush of air zoom down and into her lungs. It was strange, feeling the air sacs fill not by their own will, but another. The whole experience would've been disagreeable and downright terrifying if Lightning hadn't recognize the lips that had so selflessly provided her with air.

Her lungs refused, apparently her organs had gone on strike.

_I'm useless, how could I be so weak?_

"Breathe..." Fang's accent lulled into her ear, it was like the woman was trying to gently coax her out of being dead.

Lightning's right hand weakly responded and grabbed at the sari for comfort. She felt Fang move and someone in the back ground said something, the deeper tone of the voice signalled it was either Snow or Sazh.

_Where's Hope?_

Her heart, for a reason she couldn't fathom, throbbed with guilt.

Fang's lips met hers again, and another rush of oxygen, more this time, forced its way into Lightning's body. The sergeant felt her lungs inflate, and suddenly, that amount of oxygen the Pulse woman was providing wasn't enough.

Lightning's eyes shot open, their serene blue turning hard with a rush of emotions that had been left on the back burner from the strange woman's assault. She was blind, and temporarily forgot that poor Yun Fang was the one holding her so close. In her blurry vision, she could barely make out the woman from the wall, and instead gasped as she lurched up, forcing the assailant away.

"Hey!" Fang's outraged voice broke her from the emotion tizzy that was controlling her, Lightning coughed roughly and looked over in the direction of the exclamation. Her eyes didn't want to function, but she could see the shades of blue against the cold, steel floor. "Twice I save you and this is the thanks I get?"

Lightning heaved in and out, thankful she could breathe on her own. Her eyes narrowed, but to be honest she wasn't even sure if she was staring at Fang's face. "I could... Hit you, if... You'd like."

She could mentally see the slick smile Fang was probably wearing. "You couldn't hit the side of an airship at the moment." She teased, Lightning listened to the woman's boots slide across the floor, she was recovering from the shove. "And we're in one."

She could hear the others laugh, and in a sudden rush she was one again against the floor as a smaller body slammed itself against her in a sudden glomp. Lightning coughed, wincing as Vanille very blatantly invaded her space.

"You're back!" She cried, painfully loud, next to Lightning's ear. The sergeant winced, and very slowly, very awkwardly, returned the embrace. Vanille snuggled closer, like a kid who hadn't seen her mother in ages.

Or sister...

_Serah... _Lightning's hug tightened just a tad, enough for Vanille to notice and take it as a sign to keep lying on top of the twice dead sergeant.

"Comfy?"

"One word, Snow," Lightning threatened, staring up at the blurred ceiling. "And I swear to Eden, I will end you."

Snow grinned, she knew he was. "Glad your back, sis."

A vein in Lightning's forehead throbbed. "Don't call me that."

"Am I allowed to comment?" Sazh piped up, and she could hear the chocobo twittering happily.

"No." Lightning shot back, using her upper strength to force herself up, and make Vanille sit in her lap.

There was suddenly a noise she didn't recognize, a hum that was barely audible over Snow and Sazh's jokes. She tilted her head slightly, ignoring the awkward presence of the pig-tailed red-head so she could try and focus on whatever that giant fuzzy thing was in the corner.

"What the _hell _is _that?_" Lightning questioned, her eyes nearly slits they were trying to see so bad.

"Oh that's, Shiny." Fang offered, and she watched the blue and bronze shape move towards the thing and pat it on its shoulder. "Don't worry, he's friendly."

Another hum.

"What is he?"

"An Orion." Vanille piped up, looking over at the mechanical creation. "He helped Fang bring you back."

There were many, many questions running through Lightning's mind.

"How on Cocoon did you get an Orion?"

"Commander Whats-his-face-"

"Captain Dustan-" Vanille promptly cut Fang off as an attempt to correct her.

"No it was Desmond-" Snow interrupted her, confident he had it right.

"Dimitrius!" Sazh offered.

Lightning's eyebrow rose. "I'm loving this story already."

"It was not Dimitirus," Fang countered. "Who the hell would name their kid Dimitrius?"

Snow began to laugh. "Who the hell would name their kid _Fang?_"

Vanille was in hysterics as she watched Fang scowl at the giant and stomp forward.

"Whaddya say?" She questioned, eyes narrowed so her eyes were sparkling with doom.

"I'd say someone who had a thing for teeth." Sazh added in, grinning.

"Hey!" Vanille was still laughing. "His name is Snow, that's worse than Fang!"

"Is not!" He spat, "I am not someone's dentures!"

"Why you little-"

"No, instead your something that people walk all over." Lightning threw in, with a small smirk.

Snow blinked, Sazh and Vanille broke into laughter as the man's jaw hung open a little in utter helplessness. Fang's cheeky grin broke onto her face, as she crossed her arms, her confidence returning. "_Ha_."

"You're still someone's dentures..."

"Aye, but people got a use for me." She puffed up, happily.

"You can make snow angels in the snow." Vanille chimed, whether she realized the implications of this statement remained illusive to everyone.

"_Really..._" Sazh snickered.

"Yep!"

Lightning closed her eyes, suppressing an annoyed sigh.

_Here we go._

Snow and Fang glanced mischievously towards one another.

"How do you make a snow angel, Vanille?" Fang questioned, hoping to lure the girl in.

"Well you lay down, spread your legs and..." A blush furiously broke onto Vanille's cheek and she glared with shock and horror at Fang. "FANG!"

Too late, both she and Snow were dying of laughter. Quickly the girl lifted herself from Lightning's lap and had tackled Fang as hard as she could, but the obviously stronger woman stayed upright, catching Vanille's wrists.

"Hey now, don't get all bothered, just a joke!" Fang was still snickering, and she could see the smile threatening to overtake Vanille's miffed expression. "Turn that frown upside down, peach. Rather see you smile."

For some reason, that made Lightning's heart flutter a little. She wasn't sure if it bothered her, Fang saying that to Vanille or if she was a tad bit jealous.

_I'm not jealous. _She assured herself calmly. _Fang and Vanille have always been close._

That didn't change the fact that a smidgen of envy managed to poke at her heart. She didn't even know why it was there until she recalled a certain event right before the encounter that had sent her into a slumber.

_Oh... _

Yeah.

_I'm not jealous._

Of course not.

That feeling, that was obviously not jealously, disappeared when the commotion stopped and the others parted. Somehow, Lightning began to suspect that they knew something she didn't, as the only one who remained in the room was Fang, who had sat down right next to her. Her shoulder touching Light's.

"I can't see."

Fang looked over at her, concern on her face, not that Lightning could see it. "No?"

"Everything is blurry." She looked over to the woman, though she kept her eyes cast downwards. "Could you see, when you woke up?"

"Yep," The tribeswoman replied without a second thought. "Your stasis wasn't normal though, reckon that's got somethin' to do with it."

"Yeah..." Lightning agreed quietly, suddenly feeling horribly awkward. "Fang..."

"Yeah, Sunshine?"

She ignored her nickname, trying her best not to get annoyed at it. "About what happened..."

"Before the crystallizing?"

"Yeah..."

"Uh huh..."

Lightning fought with her emotions. She wasn't usually the type of person to be controlled by them, and Fang changed that. With this woman she was constantly fighting things like irritation, embarrassment, jealously (not), anger, and sometimes even happiness. She wanted to control them, but Fang's attitude made that hard.

The woman wasn't bothered by anything, and that drove the sergeant insane. Fang was always in control, she robbed Lightning of her leadership, and challenged her strength.

"Um..." She twitched at the noise, that also seemed to slip out a lot when Fang was present. She found herself fiddling with the opposing woman's sari. She recognized the cool feel to it, enjoyed the distraction. "I..."

"Won't happen again." Fang took the cue, and Lightning suddenly reeled inside her mind. She had given the woman the wrong signal, and now their skin was no longer touching.

"I, no..." The pink-haired woman frowned. "That's not that I meant..."

Fang's eyes narrowed and she moved a bit closer. "Take your time, Light, breathe. You'll get through this." She teased.

"_Stop_ sounding so damn amused."

Fang chuckled, she leaned a bit closer, brushing some of Lightning's bangs from her face. "Can't help it, it's fun to bother you."

"_Tch,_" Lightning looked away, feeling Fang lean closer and pull her a bit towards her. "Don't you dare kiss me-"

"Wouldn't do it here." Fang leaned against the wall, smiling as she pulled Lightning in to lean on her. "Too many witnesses."

"_What?_"

"Don't get all bent out of shape, it's just Shiny."

"Who? Oh..." Lightning recalled the machine being mentioned. "I just..."

"You need more time?" Fang questioned, though really she already knew the answer. Lightning was easy to read, or at least to her.

"Yeah..."

"I can still tease you though?"

"I'd prefer it if you didn't."

"Wouldn't be teasing if I had your permission." The woman snickered, Lightning sighed. She had walked into that trap.

"So what would it be then?"

"Flirting."

Lightning hid most of her body's need to blush, but a soft shade of pink managed to break through the barrier and paint her cheeks. Fang laughed and wrapped an arm around her, resting her arm on Lightning's opposite shoulder.

"You're cute." Fang spoke in a hushed voice.

"... Thanks, I guess."

"Trying not to be bothered?"

Light nodded.

"So you want to flirt?"

_Maker damn you... _Lightning scowled and returned to staring helplessly at the floor, Fang snickered. She then rested her forehead on the sergeant's shoulder, and sounded so solemn for a second.

"I missed you." The tanned woman admitted quietly. "I said I would bring down the sky for Vanille, and for you I'd become the right hand of the devil."

Lightning snorted, not knowing the true weight of the words. "You hardly know me."

"Maybe," She shrugged, "But adventures like this, make people grow closer faster than you'd imagine."

"Hm."

_They make you grow close against your will. _Lightning noted inwardly, with a bitter undertone. "You want to get to know me?" She sounded disinterested, like what Fang had told her was a lie.

"Aye, I do." Fang nodded, chuckling to herself. "That hard to believe, Sunshine?"

"You may have noticed, but I'm a hard person to like."

"That you are, but it doesn't change anything."

For a moment the sergeant was quiet, mulling over things in her head. She looked at the tribeswoman disbelieving. "You really missed me?"

Fang rested her chin on Lightning's shoulder, looking up at her with sparkling eyes. "Uh huh."

She frowned. "Tch.." She acted displeased, and some small part of her was. She didn't want attachments, especially if they had to destroy Cocoon. She was willing to bet whatever was left of her gil that people were going to die, and that's not something she wanted to deal with again.

Never, ever again.

But another part of her squirmed with delight with hearing her answer. Lightning let out a breath she wasn't aware she was holding. She glanced at Fang who was still staring up at her reminiscent of a puppy.

"Hm..."

"And until you make up your mind," Fang leaned back, looking as cool as ever. "I'll be waitin'."

"All right..."

Her eyes still foggy, Lightning stared across at what she believed was the wall. It could've easily been something else, but her other senses, which were functioning normally, told her it was nothing but a boring, steel-grey wall. She chewed on her tongue a bit, glancing at her companion.

_Thanks._


	12. Fixed

**Breathe**

**Fixed**

Three days, they had been resting high above the chaos and disorder in Lake Bresha for three days. Not by choice mind you, but the stolen sky tank was suffering from more engine trouble then what seemed realistically possible. It had taken a day for Lightning's vision to recover, and soon after the group discovered her magic had not been returned to her.

Snow's time was taken up by trying to repair the broken vehicle. He was slowly cannibalizing the ships large cannon it could reveal at any moment. Stripping it for parts he believed could help them, Sazh was helping out, running back and forth maniacally from the engine room, the cannon maintenance shaft and the cockpit in a desperate attempt to keep Snow updated.

Lightning, for the last three days, had worn down her patience. While Fang and Vanille thought it was hilarious, the sergeant couldn't abide time wasting away. She offered to help them after snapping at the tribeswomen who had somehow managed to convince her not to help out the two dumbfounded men until now.

So as it was now, Snow had extra power running from the cannon's core to the engine's, in a hope to boost the output enough to get them off the ground. It didn't have to be graceful, but should the need arise for an escape, Lightning would very much like for it to be there. Shiny didn't seem keen on doing much other than guarding the group, so she had left him to that.

Vanille and Fang had taken to scouting out the area, and scavenging anything they could find. Lightning hoped, desperately prayed that food was something they would bring eventually. They hadn't actually eaten for two days, as the supply had ran out before. She had mentally noted to inform them to steal a ship that was restocked, or when pretending to be a PSICOM group, to request rations before gallivanting off on some scheme.

_I thought I would've taught them something. _She thought, she was alone in the engine room. She was lying underneath the massive, if old AMP-MANA Combuster engine. To be honest, she wasn't much for mechanics, but since her poor, dented Blaze Edge proved to be a little more difficult than she originally thought, she had resigned herself to stealing Snow's job.

She tightened a loose head quickly, before she reached up and touched belt that was worn. She frowned, she knew it was important, but she didn't know why.

_Oh to hell with this... _She thought, sliding out from underneath. Her eyes immediately went to the door, seeing Snow standing there, interested.

"Hey, Light,"

She frowned a bit. "What is it?"

"Nothin', just bored. You done tinkering away?"

Lightning gave him a curious look, though it was also critical. "You don't think I'm helping?"

"It's not that." Snow replied casually, hands in his pockets.

"What is it, then?"

"Honestly?" He questioned, though it was rhetorical. Or Lightning took it as such, and didn't look at him as she grabbed a rag off the shelf and began to wipe off her hands. "There's not much that can be done. This thing was probably due for an overhaul, and we took it."

"And worked it too hard?" Light questioned, she had leaned against the engine, still sitting.

"Yeah, it's like... Well it'd be a lot like telling, you remember that old merchant who was always set up on the seaside?"

Lightning nodded, obviously not approving. "He didn't have the proper permits..."

Snow chuckled. "Yeah, well, he was a bit... Rotund, anyways... It's a lot like telling him to run a marathon." He scratched the back of his head as he thought. "He could do it, if he pushed himself, but he'd be spent afterwards."

_That's assuming he doesn't have a heart attack, stroke, or faint from the exhaustion of trying. _Lightning mused, "Right."

"Bad comparison?"

Snow actually sounded worried about her opinion. Lightning shrugged, looking up at him. "No, it's perfect actually." The woman paused, brushing a few of her rosy bangs from her face. "It's just..."

He tilted his head, looking at her curiously.

"He never had the damn permits."

He laughed, leaned against the engine room wall. She had the faintest trace of a smile on her lips.

"Never?" Snow asked, crossing his arms.

"Never." Lightning shook her head. "It's not like he needed multiple, he only needed one to sell on the beach side. He would see me and try to bribe me with shells, potions, anything. He didn't appreciate it when I informed him I received free potions from the Corps., and the shells could be found on the beach for the outstanding price of nothing."

The giant began to chuckle again. "So what did he do?"

"He turned purple." She noted, looking a little curious. "I've never seen a man turn indigo with anger, but he did it."

"Did he assault you?" Snow sounded a little defensive.

"I think he tried." Lightning admitted, recalling the incident. "Of course his assault turned into a sort of screaming fit as he tripped over a crate he had, and he smashed his head on the table. I had to call an ambulance."

"He was that hurt?"

"No, but I didn't want to deal with him."

Snow laughed, sliding down. Whatever lingering irritation Lightning had, it wasn't towards him. For the moment, he was welcomed to be in her presence. The man twiddled his thumbs as the awkward silence brushed over them, broken by the rumbling of his empty stomach. Lightning gave him a half-amused glance, before she rolled her eyes and went back to meticulously cleaning her hands, to no avail.

"Engine grease is hard to get off." He noted, reaching up to one of the lower shelves, he plucked a plastic bottle off it it, filled with some strange green substance. Lightning raised a brow, reading the label quickly.

'Goo-Gone'

_Oh how original... _

"Let's see your hand," Snow reached out to take it, having snagged his own rag.

Lightning was obviously mulling over the decision with incredible thought. He could see her grind her teeth together, and he wondered if he reached that particular trust point yet. Their awkward kiss in the cave had done nothing for either of them, and her admittance to only wanting to prove a point had, at some level, hurt him.

She and him both knew, this was testing to see if she had been serious. If she truly disliked him, by refusing to give her hand coldly, if she wasn't sure, by keeping her hand to herself politely, or...

Her soft palm touched his rough one, and she shuffled a little closer to be comfortable as he flicked off the lid of the bottle and flipped her hand over. He squeezed about a quarter sized glob into the middle of her palm before she retracted her hand and began to lather the strange substance all over hands. Particularly the creases and under her nails.

Lightning was ignorant to Snow watching her a little too keenly, instead she was meticulous with getting the grease off of her. In the middle of the process, Snow took her hand back and began to wipe the Goo-Gone off. She blinked, not entirely wanting the physical contact, but she could deal with it at the moment.

"Snow..."

"Hm?" He was almost done the first hand and would move onto the second soon enough.

"I am perfectly capable of cleaning my own hands..."

The man stopped, that had never crossed his mind apparently. She stared at him, partially waiting for the release of her hand, and the other part anticipating what he would do next, if not the first choice.

With not another second of hesitation, Snow released her hand and tossed her the rag. "Sorry," he said sheepishly.

Oh, there was that silence she had missed. It was awkward, but at least it hadn't abandoned her.

"So, if I got to run again..." Snow broke the silence, he hated silence. "Where would we go?"

"Nautilus."

"Why?"

Lightning looked at him, and he could almost see the calculations and considerations run against her eyes. "We need a new ship."

"We're going to steal one?"

"Borrow." Lightning corrected, not wanting to realize she was breaking a law she was once required to up hold. "We'll return it once we're finished with it."

"Oh," Snow snorted, amused. "Well as long as we return it."

Lightning nodded, shaking her head at her own plan. "Unless you have a better plan?"

"We need a better ship if we're going to find Hope." He sounded confident, but his eyes gave away the uncertainty. "This old tin can won't hold together for very long, chances are we'll get to Nautilus and it'll fall apart."

"Hm," she nodded, and then glanced at him. "How was the group, you know, when I was-"

"I'd like to say we held it together, but to be honest we were a mess." He shrugged, letting out a long sigh as he stared up at the ceiling. "I mean, we impersonated PSICOM soldiers..."

"And you were a prisoner..." She thought that bit was a little funny. Imagining anyone trying to arrest 6'5'' tough-guy built of muscle painted pictures in her head that resulted in PSICOM's imminent defeat.

"Yeah, the fact that they bought it amazed me." Snow noted, smiling. "You'd think the crystal statue in the hold would've given away something, or how unprofessional Vanille and Fang were.." He turned to look at the rosy-haired beauty. "Have you ever seen Vanille try to walk straight?"

Lightning blinked, surprised. "No...?"

"That's because she can't." He snickered, watching from the corner of the eye as a trace of a smile appeared. "I think the others might've presumed she was drinking on the job..."

"Drunk Vanille..." The sergeant tried to imagine that, and the image didn't turn out good. "Oh Eden... That'd be a disaster..."

"What about you?" Snow countered, with a sly smile. "Can't imagine you holding your liquor very well."

"I don't drink." Lightning frowned at him, glancing sideways. "... For that very reason."

Snow broke into laughter, to which the woman found herself scowling at him before she looked at the floor sheepishly and let out a small chuckle.

"So you've drank before?"

"Not excessively." She admitted.

"So you have no idea how you'd be, drunk?"

"Never had the desire to try, Snow." She looked at him, half-amused.

"You should." He nudged her, and was secretly surprised when she didn't hit him back. "Everyone needs to get wasted once, it's a life experience."

"An experience I'll avoid, thanks."

"Oh come on," Snow's smile made her defences waver. "What harm could happen?"

"We're fugitives."

"Tell ya what, I'll make you a deal."

Lightning's eyes immediately narrowed suspiciously. Snow's deals were almost as bad as a fal'Cie's focus. Still, she didn't cut him off, she was mildly curious about what it was.

"If we manage to 'borrow' an airship without alerting the authorities, you gotta drink til you're plastered."

"Fat chance."

"Hold on, there's more." Snow's eyes glinted dangerously. "If we do get caught, then you can pick a punishment for me."

"... Huh..." Lightning was actually half-tempted by the offer. It wasn't often she actually got to punish the man without a 'real' reason. "Can I think about it?"

"You have til we get to Nautilus." He nodded in return, watching as she stood up. He was thankful her back was turned, or she might've caught him admiring certain aspects of her body more than he should. Immediately he looked at the floor, somewhat ashamed of what he had done.

Only somewhat, he was a man after all. Some things just couldn't change, though really he should try a lot harder to not check out his future sister-in-law's ass. He chuckled to himself as she left the room, glanced at the engine, eyeing it before with considerable force he slammed the side of it, and grinned when it began to rumble.

_She has more talent than she thinks. _

_

* * *

_

Lightning was quiet as she took a seat next to Sazh, watching with feigned interest as the chocobo hopped from it's real owner and into her lap. She rose an eyebrow at it, watching it watch her curiously before it chirped.

_Useless ball of fluff. _She thought bitterly, shooing it from her lap so it fluttered onto the dashboard. Lightning admitted it was cute, but with no practical purpose, she had no time or need for it. _Yet you put up with Snow, strange... _

She reasoned with herself that he was a bit harder to shoo away than a bird.

"So, what's the plan to get Hope?" Sazh looked up lazily, one eye cracking open. "We all waited for you to get back, hopin' you'd have some big fancy plan to-"

"I don't know." Lightning replied so matter-of-factly it was almost surreal. "But we need to head to Nautilus."

"Uhh," the pilot blinked, sitting up immediately. "We _are _going to go get him, right?"

Ignoring the need to grab the controls and whip off into the direction of the not-quite-PSICOM army, she merely nodded.

"After we go to Nautilus."

"What's in Nautilus?"

"Ships!" Snow broke in, grinning as he ducked his way into the cockpit and leaned heavily on either seat. Sazh's stayed more upright, but Lightning frowned as hers bent back, she didn't weigh enough to counter the mass of muscle that was Snow. "We need a ship, my man."

Sazh frowned. "Oh, we're gonna get a new one?"

"Yep!" Snow beamed.

The older of the two men, did not seem impressed. "How are we gonna do that? Just meander on up to someone? Ask if we can have their ship?"

"Yes." Lightning answered, again, like it was the simplistic thing in the world.

"We're l'Cie."

"They don't know that." Snow countered, finding this debate amusing.

"We don't got the permits-"

"Don't need 'em." Again, Snow spoke, and watched as Lightning rolled her eyes. _Probably thinks I'm as bad as that fat ass merchant._

"Who in their right mind is gonna give _us _a ship?"

"Someone who leaves it unguarded." The sergeant spoke up, flicking a switch so the board before Sazh booted up, flicking on with all sorts of nonsense. "Now get going."

The chocobo seemed pleased with the plan, but Sazh was far from it.

"We're going to _steal _an _airship!"_

"Oh!" Vanille bounced into the room, jumping up on Snow's back. "That sounds like fun!"

"Damn right it does!" Fang was the final person to come in, slipping under Snow's arm to appear crouched between the two seats. "We need some excitement!"

"As if we don't got enough of that..." Sazh bowed his head in defeated.

"For three days we've sat on our butts, waitin' for you lot to fix the ship." Fang gestured flippantly to the two men. "Third day, and it's Sunshine here who fixes it. Let's get going!"

Distantly there was a deep hum.

"See?" Vanille giggled. "Even Shiny's bored! Hop to it Sazh!"

"For the love of the fal'Cie-"

"There's food." Lightning interrupted the coming curse, staring blankly at Sazh. "Shut up and fly. I'm hungry."

"Yes ma'am."


	13. Stakes

**Breathe**

**Stakes**

It's not like she had lost them on purpose.

The war Morrigan had brought down on PSICOM was still raging, but the tides were beginning to turn in her favour. PSICOM was falling back, their ships being quickly prepared to leave and report back to their betters. She would allow them to live, Sanctum wouldn't go announcing that there were government imposters, that would deal the final blow to the shaken people of Cocoon. Countless lives would be lost, and that was something not even Morrigan wanted.

Not at the moment, anyway.

No, at the moment she wanted the l'Cie, but that was proving beyond difficult. They had escaped in the chaos, and already had her Captain spoken to her about her own blatant failure. The woman wasn't happy, even if they had two of the three crystals they needed, one was forced, and the other was resisting. She didn't have time to baby them properly, and there was, of course, the case of that meddling little Farron girl.

_She'll be the death of me, if she keeps interfering. _Morrigan grumbled, sitting alone in her private quarters. She liked her ship, she liked the privacy it gave her. What she didn't like was how her own thoughts were beginning to betray her as she thought of where these damned l'Cie could be heading. They had freed Lightning (she had been informed of that), yet they didn't come find her, and demand to know what happened to Hope. _Do they just not care? _

It was hard to imagine anyone cutting Hope off so suddenly, particularly Sergeant Farron and Snow Villiers. No, there had to be another reason...

Morrigan, just couldn't figure it out.

_Maybe they're planning their assault.. _She mulled over the idea, seeing as Lightning was back, there would be much better strategy, but nothing she couldn't over come. _They know of my power, but they don't know how far it reaches... _Narrowing her eyes, she pressed a small button below the private screen, watching it fizzle to life. _I will find them, we've come to far to fail now._

_

* * *

_

So the sky tank basically slammed into the dock, sputtering what was probably the last of its life before it groaned and collapsed onto its landing gear, a rush of air making what little dust there was in Nautilus rush away from it and annoy the dock workers. Lightning frowned as the ramp slowly lowered, glancing sideways at Fang, who was, of course, amused at their very un-subtle landing.

Oh well, this was promising towards the bet. If they kept this up they would be noticed, hounded, and forced to commandeer another vessel and then Snow would be at her mercy. Inside of her twisted some sort of sick pleasure at the thought, but she pushed it to the back of her mind. She couldn't outright cheat and make themselves noticed, that wasn't fair, besides it would be easy enough because-

"Oh Fang! Can we go check out the plushie stands?"

As soon as Vanille stepped off the ramp, she tripped. Lightning watched as Fang went after her, laughing as the girl went head over heels and slammed into one of the Guardian Corps. Soldiers that was quick to help the girl to her feet.

"Becareful," he laughed a little. "Don't want to get hurt and miss anything out here, eh?"

Vanille smiled nervously and thanked him before being pulled off towards the stands by Fang.

Sazh exited the airship next, sighing as he realized that everything he and Vanille didn't check out last time, was probably on their list. Lightning watched him for a moment before she glanced at Snow, who had his hands behind his head.

"We're off to a great start," Lightning noted, eyes narrowly a little as she watched the man roll his eyes.

"I think we can do it."

The sergeant rolled her eyes and started down the ramp. "I never doubted with could find another airship."

Snow frowned, hurrying after her. "Just doubted our abilities at procuring it."

"Oh, _procuring_, big word for you."

"So negative." Snow bounded in front of her and smirked. "You should have a little more faith."

Lightning, armed with a replacement gunblade, rested her hand on its hilt. "And _you_ should get out of my way."

Snow looked fearful for a split-second and slid to the side. "Yes, Ma'am."

"So," Sazh looked at the others. "Any requests on the ship?"

"One that flies." Fang offered, handing one of the Carbuncle plushies to Vanille, who squeed in delight. "Just a thought."

"Ha ha," the man frowned in return. "Any _serious _requests?"

"One that can outrun Morrigan."

Everyone looked at Lightning then, confused.

"Morrigan?" Snow questioned.

"The woman who..." Lightning pauses, not knowing how to say it.

"Put ya on ice," Fang threw in, figuring it was better than nothing.

"Yes," Lightning didn't particularly like that comparison. "_Her. _That's her name."

"How do you know?" Sazh blinked.

"I just do." She countered, not really understanding it herself. "That's her name."

"So, a fast ship." Vanille pivoted around on her heel happily, eyes taking in all the ships around them quickly. "I don't think any of these will do."

"Some sort of firepower would be nice.." Snow commented, thinking about if they got caught in a firefight.

"Right, well, this is the common docks." Sazh interrupted, "if we want anything that can even begin to compare to Morrigan's arsenal, we need to get into the private shipyards."

"And where are they?" Fang questioned, crossing her arms.

"Follow me." Sazh smiled wearily, walking off.

* * *

It was really beginning to look like Lightning was going to win this bet. Before them was a massive gate guarded by far too many men for them to be rid of quickly, even with Shiny's help (who had been oddly quiet this entire time). Lightning was watching the soldiers critically, trying to find a big weakness they could exploit. She had been doing this, meticulously, for a good hour.

Snow and Vanille had bounded off to play games and such, trying to win a grand prize, Sazh was reminiscing about chocobos and his crystal son alone (well sort off, Shiny had kept him company), and Fang had just upped and disappeared.

Lightning scowled.

There was no weakness they could exploit. Every small crack in their guard vanished far too quickly for the group to do anything with. Lightning growled, arms crossed and foot tapping as she sat on a crate near the shipping yards (still notably, packed with people) and kept trying. There _had _to be a weakness, something that would make it possible for the group to enter the docks.

But she couldn't find it.

"Ya know, if you keep that up, you'll burn a hole through the gate."

Lightning looked up, eyebrow raising as her eyes locked with Fang's, the woman was perched right on top of the larger metal container behind her crate, giving the tribeswoman the perfect vantage point. She smirked down at Lightning, who just huffed and went back to scanning the gate.

It was then, that something dropped down onto her lap.

"Looky what I found." The woman mocked a child's enthusiasm.

Lightning picked up the object curiously, analyzing it much like she did everything else. It was a small, portable radio. A little beaten and rough around the edges, but still in working order. It wasn't as sleek and nice as many of the newer goods, but it had an odd charm about it.

"It's a radio..."

The charm was lost to Sergeant Farron though, who didn't know what to do with it.

"Oh jeez, Light, flick it on will ya? If ya gonna stay here and glower about the gate, might as well enjoy some tunes, yeah?"

"Tch," Despite her disapproval she switched it on.

"_Until you see me in your dreams,_

_We'll stay awake beneath the trees,_

_We'll watch the buildings turn to dust,_

_a sky of diamonds, just for us."_

Lightning blinked, starring at the contraption dumbfounded as the song played. She hadn't expected it to be tuned, so she suspected either Fang had set this up, or that it had been set on this channel before her friend had mysteriously gotten a hold of it.

"Who is this?" She questioned.

"Dunno, always liked the song though. Heard it back in Bodhum, reminds me of you."

Lighting found that somewhat interesting, and continued to listen to it with a neutral, if a tad curious, expression. It was a nice song, and if she was honest with herself, it reminded her of Fang. But to tell the tribeswoman that would mean she would never hear the end of it, just like how she wasn't going to hear the end of how she had spent an hour or so staring at a door.

"So," Fang looked cheeky. "Figured out how to get in yet?"

_And cue the teasing.._

"No."

"Not the slightest of ideas?"

"Fang, if you know a way in, by all means, show me." Lightning gestured to the gate with a wave of hand. "If not... Then stop it."

"Such a hot-head," Fang chuckled, slipping down from the crate, she grabbed Light's wrist and began to tug her off towards the others. "Come on, get this group moving and meet me over by that pier, eh? I'll show you our entrance."

* * *

"_This _is your entrance?"

"Oh dear..."

There was a low hum of disapproval.

"Fang, you're out of your mind!"

"There's is no way I can fit in there..."

A happy tweet.

"Chirp here likes it," Fang defended herself.

Lightning's analytical (and irritated) gaze travelled from the barred hole in the wall to Fang. Not only could half of the group _not _fit through the vent, if it was even a _vent_, but it was wet and slippery on the inside, and these sort of flood control systems often had drops in their shafts so the water had somewhere to go. For all any one of them knew, this glorified hole in the wall connected to the sewer system.

She narrowed her eyes at Fang, and crossed her arms.

"Worst plan _ever._"

"Where's the faith?" Fang snickered, pulling on the barred cover, it groaned before one of the bars popped out. Rusted and neglected for the far more important things in Nautilus. "Come on, once we're on the other side, no one will look at us sideways, they'll assume we belong there."

"Yeah, um..." Snow crossed his arms, and stood next to the even more imposing Shiny. "We," he gestured to the two of them. "Don't fit."

"The only one who _could_ fit," Sazh frowned. "Is Vanille, and she ain't no super spy. Probably fall and kill herself."

"Hey!" Vanille stamped her feet like a child. "Sazh, I thought we were friends!"

"We are," he chuckled halfheartedly. "But come on, you want to go crawling through a dark, cramped tunnel that's probably full of flan?"

She visibly paled and ducked behind Fang, not wanting to be near the grate. "Flan?"

"OH, for the love of the fal'Cie," Fang glared at Sazh. "Me and Light will go."

Lightning rose an eyebrow. "Who says I'm coming?"

"I do." She replied quickly, smirking. "Unless ya not up to the challenge, Sunshine."

_Oh... You witch..._

"Tch..." Lightning looked away irritated.

"So it's settled then, we'll find the ship, Light will fly it back, cuz I got no idea in the whole 'verse how to work your Cocoon contraptions... And we fly out to find our lost boy!"

Shiny wasn't happy with his Mistress going so far without him, and hummed like usual, in disapproval. Fang just smiled at him and patted him on the cannon arm, grinning.

"Light'll take good care of me, won'tcha Light?"

"Fang if you don't get moving..."

She had already disappeared into the vent, not wanting to delay this endeavour any longer. The tribeswoman rolled her eyes and went for the entrance, only to be stopped by Snow, who was smirking.

"Make sure you don't get caught."

The woman rose a brow. "Oh? Why's that?"

The man beamed, and looked almost as devilish as the fal'Cie. "Believe me Fang, it's worth it. _Don't _let anyone catch onto your plan."

"All right." She shrugged and hurried after Lightning, slipping inside. "No one will suspect a thing," she smiled back at Snow and winked. "Got my word."

The man leaned back against one of the crates, a big, confident smile plastered on his face. Vanille gave him a curious look, while Sazh professed he didn't want to know and went back to pacing.

_Oh... _He thought, trying to imagine Lightning drunk. _This is gonna be great..._


	14. Tight

Oh my word, after my long silence I have returned! Thank you to the new reviews, and to those of you who have patiently waited for my inevitable return. I'm well on my way now, with both this, and the next chapter complete. I'm also a quarter into the next (next) chapter, meaning all is well and good in the house of Starry.

**Tight**

Crawling through the harbours' draining pipes was not exactly how Lightning imagined herself, when preparing the steal another airship. The pipes were cramped and damp, not ideal, and she was sure she was going to get tetanus from one of the rusted screws holding the crawl ways together. Lightning hadn't spoken much to either her current travelling companion, or the trio waiting outside the entrance. They would occasionally shout inside, usually some smart comment from Sazh or Snow, to which Light would growl in annoyance and Fang would return with a quick remark of her own.

_This is a very unfortunate time to find out I'm claustrophobic… _Lightning noted, trying to ignoring the sinking feeling she had and the way the walls seemed to press down on her.

"You okay there Light?"

There was a hesitation before the sergeant gathered her nerve and spoke. "I'm fine."

She could practically see Fang's suspicious expression, but chose not to elaborate further on the subject. All she needed was the Gran Pulse-borns pity to make this situation go from bad to worse.

"Sazh says there should be some sort of main junction!" Vanille's voice echoed down into the pipes with them. "A numerical system should reveal which way to go!"

"We don't know the numerical system." Lightning growled, irritated as she slunk around one of the bends and disappeared from Fang's sight.

"We can ask Shiny when we get there." Fang offered, "Just be careful."

"Why?"

"Well because there's usually a-"

Lightning yelped as the ground disappeared from behind her hands and she toppled head first into a shallow pool of water. The woman gurgled and snarled as she righted herself quickly, one hand reaching up to rub the spot of her head that had met the ground rather suddenly. Her eye visibly twitched as the laughter Fang was failing to conceal met her ears.

"A drop…" Fang snorted in between dying chuckles. "What happened Sunshine? Left your grace in dreamland?"

"Fang, speak another word and I will sever your smiling head from your body."

"Oh don't get yer panties in a twist, it was only a- AHHH! GET OFF!"

Fang who had made the very poor mistake of ever mentioning Lightning's undergarments, found herself in a rather awkward, painful hold from the sergeant who then shifted her weight and flipped the tribeswoman in the pool. Her exclamation of 'get off' was drowned out by cursed bubbling and the slight inhalation of water, both of which reminded her of the near drowning experience she had back in the temple.

Not something she needed, and not wanting to lose to Light, she swung out her foot and knocked the fuming rosy-haired companion off her feet and onto her back.

"If…" Fang coughed, sitting up in the pool, watching Lightning do the same. "I gotta… Drown, you are dyin' with me."

"Urgh…" The sergeant opened her eyes, and the hell that was brewing in them told Fang that she should really shut up right about now.

"Just tell me what's wrong," The charmer crossed her arms, still sitting in the pool.

"… I'm," Light looked around, the room was much larger than the pipes, and at least half of tubes they might have to clamber through were at least twice the diameter of the one they had entered through. Her nerves calmed a tad, noticing that there were stairs leading up to somewhere, though barred by a chain-link door, it could probably be hacked through if need be. Half of the room of course, was cut off by a massive floodgate, with small holes in it that allowed some of the water on the other side to leak through. "I don't like tight places."

"_Really…_"

"You know what I mean Fang."

"Oh, yer no fun." Fang stood up, following Lightning who had wandered up to the closed floodgate. "I vote, neither of us touches a button that's not clearly labelled."

The sergeant glances back at her somewhat irritably; obviously she wouldn't be the one to do such a thing. Fang rolls her eyes, pushing past her to examine the tubes.

"As if you've never made a mistake."

"I haven't."

"Sure," Fang tinkered with the thought in her head. "You've always caught your man, never said the wrong thing- assuming you spoke at some point."

"I don't make mistakes." Lightning clearly pointed out again, ignoring Fang's look. "Ask Shiny which pipe it is."

"Yes ma'am," the dark-haired woman feigned a salute and sauntered over to the entrance pipe. "Oi, guys! What pipe is it?"

"The schematics he shows, it should be pipe 08-76X2-01."

"What the hell is that?" Fang blinked.

"A serial number." Lightning answered, reading each one on the pipes until she got to the floodgate. "… Damn it."

Fang grimaced a tad, resting her hands on her hips. "I don't like where this is going."

"We need to open the gate." The woman stated, ignoring the other. "We need to find a switch."

"I don't like this idea." The other countered, "That water has nowhere to really go, and I don't feel like drowning."

"I don't plan on killing us." Lightning moved on to the chain-link door, fiddling with the lock until there was a soft click and she slid the door to the side.

Fang blinked, following her. "You can pick-locks?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Fang I am not playing one-hundred-stupid-questions with you, that's a game reserved only for Snow."

"Why him?"

"Because he is the only one I expect to ask me one-hundred pointless questions, not you."

Fang paused. "Is that a compliment?"

Lightning forced the next door open, making it groan. "As close as you're going to get to getting one."

The woman behind her grinned. "I'll take it then."

"Wise choice."

The control room, if it could be called that. Had a single person inside of it, he was sleep, slumped over in his chair, drool dripping down onto the control board that was flashing all sorts of signals. Chips were sprayed across the floor from the man dropping them, and whatever he had been watching on his employer's time had long since ended. The screen only had a triangle for play again, or dashes to play the next video.

"Wonder what he was watchin'," Fang muttered, as they both slunk inside and investigated the room. She was far more interested in the young, drooling idiot who had fallen asleep on his shift than anything else.

"Don't touch anything." Lightning snapped, moving towards the display screen of the pipelines. There were four pipes that could take them where they wanted to go, all of which were on the opposite side of that floodgate. She frowned, seeing that the gate being shown was flashing, showing that something on the other side was causing too much pressure on the structure.

It was also saying that this pressure had been mounting for days, and the flashing alarm had been on for at least ten hours. So unless the moron was in a coma, he knew about the problem.

Fang had never been good with orders.

She reached forward and touched the screen, and suddenly there were the most awkward, and intriguing noises coming from the room's sound system.

The worker jolted awake, cursing and apologizing to his boss who actually wasn't present. Fang was watching to the two women rather curiously. One was bound in the more curious position and the other, well, she certainly wasn't listening to the other's beg for mercy and to just let her… Get where she was going.

Fang looked over at Lightning, who was staring at the screen in some sort of 'lobo-in-headlights' mortified expression as she slowly neared the screen. Of course that mortification seemed to fade for genuine, if morbid curiosity.

The tribeswoman grinned, nudging Lightning, shaking her from her stupor. "That bound chick looks like you."

Fang should've withered and died from the look she got, but instead she just beamed from the attention and pressed the pause button at a moment that would at some point, draw Lightning's innocent mind again. But the following few minutes, the sergeant had her eyes fixated on the rather confused controller.

"I… Uh, wait, you're not my boss-"

"You're damn right I'm not your boss," Lightning growled, she had no patience for people who jerk-off (this time literally) when they're supposed to be working. "I'm your boss's boss."

"Oh..."

"That's right," The sergeant leaned close to him, making the man sit back down awkwardly. "Because your boss is completely inept at his job, I was sent down here, from my nice, clean office to talk to the moron who has allowed the pressure to build up behind the floodgate."

He made the mistake of flicking his eyes. Fang smirked, leaning against the wall. "Oi boy, think you should be paying attention to her words, not her chest."

Lightning leaned closer, so she was whispering death into his ear. "Did you just look at my breasts?"

"W-what… N-No! No ma'am! I didn't-"

The sergeant stood up, completely rigid, she had her hands tucked neatly behind her back as she turned from the boy and looked around the room. She looked back at him, watching his eyes move from the paused porn on his screen, to his lap, to the opposite wall.

"Not that floodgate..." Light's voice was unwaveringly cold.

"Who's she?" He gestured to Fang; at least the bitch scaring the living crap out of him looked like she held some rank somewhere. The other was just intimidating. But not in that structured social way, in fact it wouldn't surprise him if she were in some of the vids he was usually looking up. Maybe if he searched hard enough he could-

"You don't want to meet me," She answered, eyes darkening. "Just answer her question."

"The gate… Somethin' is plugging most of the pipes. Dunno what, but boss said to just make sure it didn't turn critical. The repair guys should be here on Thursday-"

"Open the gate."

"W-what?"

Lightning's eyes narrowed. "Excuse me?"

"I… Pardon?" The worker questioned, hoping it was the right answer.

"She said open it." Fang threw in. "Ya don't want her to ask twice."

"But," he looked at the display of the chamber. "It could be a dangerous build up or somethin', if that got into the water-"

"Boy where do you think it came from?" Fang snickered. "It's a flood room, for water. Do you know anyone stupid enough to crawl through those pipes and stick somethin' in it?"

Lightning shot Fang a sideways glance.

"Open it," Light's eyes ever so briefly flicked to the image on the worker's personal screen. "Now."

"I'm gonna get fired-"

"You're already fired." The sergeant replied coolly, watching her companion laugh. "Now do it, and I won't withhold your pay for dereliction of duty."

"I- But… Eden damn… Fine!"

He clicked the button, and the room began to shake as the floodgate opened. He then stomped towards the elevator and slipped inside, flipping them both off before the doors shut and the lift began upwards.

Light gave the screen one last glance, noting how that could be, in no human way, comfortable, before swivelling and heading for the stairs.

"Hold on a tick, Sunshine…"

"What Fang?"

"I saw you eyeing that screen, you wanna watch the rest?"

"No."

"Not even curious about it?"

"Definitely not."

"Alright," Fang raised a brow. "We could act it out, bet I could find some rope."

Lightning stopped just before the step, before she began again down to the main chamber. The Oerban woman, however, looked at the screen with a smirk as she crossed her arms. She tilted her head to the side with the same amused expression as she resumed the video, watching the withering display with definite interest.

"Fang," Lightning called from the other room. "Stop watching that damn video and get down here."

Considering what the two women were doing at the moment, Fang chuckled. "Poor choice of words…" She turned from the vid and hurried for the stairs. "Comin' Sunshine~"


	15. Similarities

**Similarities**

Being left alone with Vanille, was never a good idea. Snow had decided this, since the last time she has pretty much gone ape-shit with her magical abilities and summoned such an amount of water it could put this harbour to shame. Not to mention that as adorable as she was, Vanille was a bit of a loose-leaf, with thoughts that had no more connection then Lightning did to real human emotions. Sazh had, a couple of minutes ago, decided he so desperately needed a drink after all this that he had gone off to waste what money they had on alcohol.

Not that Snow's plan was exactly different, but drinking by one's self was always far more depressing then getting a hard-up, desperately-needing-to-get-laid-sergeant so drunk that she might, actually might, smile in his direction. He had, at fleeting intervals seen that smile, but never once had it really been directed at him.

That was something that needed to change.

_My subtly growing attraction to her needs to die. _Snow frowned; he had sat down when Sazh left, choosing instead to lean up against the wall near the entrance then anything. Shiny was patiently waiting right in front of the entrance, probably listening in on what the two inside were arguing about. Vanille had decided that skipping pebbles was an entertaining venture.

Only it was pieces of garbage, not pebbles.

And they didn't skip, they kinda just sunk.

"Why do you think they need us?"

Snow looked up, surprised to hear Vanille speak instead of humming some tune she had overheard from a bar or club nearby. "Hmm?"

"The fal'Cie, why not just create something to do what they wanted?"

"They did." The man frowned, a tad confused on her point. "They created the l'Cie."

"No I meant…" Vanille thought for a moment. "The fal'Cie claims they made Cocoon, they want us to destroy it… Why wouldn't they just create a being or a machine meant to destroy Cocoon? That way, they wouldn't have to bother with people."

"They can't destroy what they created, isn't that how it works?"

"It's not really them, if you think about it." Vanille kicked a piece of garbage into the water. "It would be what they created destroying Cocoon, like how they created l'Cie and use them."

Snow blinked, he had never thought about it. "It never occurred to them, I suppose?"

"I guess not." Vanille shrugged, choosing then to sit next to the giant. "I guess it would be bad if they figured that out."

"Why?"

"Well, then they would just do it. Create a big, fancy Ragnarok, and kaboom. What are we going to do about it?"

"Aren't you supposed to be cheery?" Snow smirked, nudging her a bit. Vanille shrugged, giving a weak smile.

"Can't help but, think about it… I guess." She leaned against him. "It doesn't matter; we'll find a way through it."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

"How?"

Vanille looked at Snow, with a serious face. "What's the alternative?"

"We fail."

"We don't want that."

"No, we don't."

"So we'll succeed."

"I love your logic, it's so simple."

Vanille giggled. "Bright side always wins."

"I guess so."

There was an awkward silence, until a noise echoed out of the sewer that made both of them look at the entrance and put Shiny on edge. However, since the machine in their company hadn't started blasting away at the sewer, both of them assumed that everything was okay and that Lightning and Fang were just moving on.

* * *

Well the small pool of water had grown to something akin to a deep pond. It wasn't really anything too deep, what caused problems were the tubes were half submerged, meaning crawling through them was going to get interesting. Already the water was up to Lightning's knees, and though she had always enjoyed the feel of water, this was a sewer system, and while it avoided the main disgusting lines…

It was still a _sewer. _

"Chin up Sunshine, ain't that bad."

Lightning shot a look back over to Fang before she looked down into the deeper portion. It was clear as could be, actually besides the small bit of dirt (or what she hoped was dirt) at the bottom, it was quite clean. Maybe it had already been processed, if she were lucky. She chewed on her tongue a bit, deciding whether to go in first, or just push Fang in.

She eyed Fang, who was standing just a tad too far back.

_Damn. _The sergeant frowned, and eyed the pool again. She didn't have her gun, and while chances are there was nothing in this place, something was making her edgy. She looked back at her friend, who, without a care, cannon-balled into the water.

Lightning, who had just begun drying off from the first tumble into the pool, was soaked again.

_Eden, give me the strength not to kill her._

"Fang," Lightning crossed her arms, still managing to cling to her dignity as her friend re-emerged.

"Yeah?"

"Do you have any idea what's happened to that water?"

Fang chuckled, looking far better than she should for a woman standing in potential sewage water. "It's a drainage center, not a sewage plant Light... Besides, I've been in worse."

"Why… doesn't that surprise me…" Light grumbled, hoping into the water, with not nearly the gusto Fang had shown. "Why don't you have your lance?"

"You do remember the pipe with crawled through right?" Fang questioned, wading backwards as she faced Lightning, arms behind her head. "No room, besides, what could be down here?"

"Besides moronic employees, I don't know…" The sergeant followed, allowing a smirk to appear on her face. "Man-eating piranhas? There was a new film out in Bodhum about them. I took Serah to see it."

"From what Snow and you have told me 'bout her, surprised she went."

Lightning shrugged. "She owed me."

"For what?"

"She made me go out with her and that idiot she dates, so she had to see the movie with me."

The Gran Pulsian rose a brow, intrigued. "How was it?"

"What? The play date or the movie?"

"The movie… Play date?"

"It was like babysitting a four and a six year old. The six year old just wants you to have a good time and the four year old has the attention span of a damn guppy."

Fang commented, narrowing her eyes a tad. "You really don't like him."

Lightning paused; she thought she had overcome her dislike for Snow. Old memories seemed to dredge up the feelings, and that caused her to frown.

"He's a child, in a man's body."

"So you've noticed his body."

The sergeant gritted her teeth together for a moment, clicking her tongue. "I know Vanille has."

"I-" Fang blinked, eyes growing wide with shock. "Whaddaya say?"

Having the upper ground, Lightning looked far more confident. "I'm sure you heard me just fine."

She picked up on the challenge immediately, and ceased her backpedal through the water to close the distant between she and her friend. Yun Fang looked mildly intimidating now, but her opponent didn't waver. She gave her a coy look, feigning ignorance to the statement.

"Vanille doesn't have an eye for yer brother-in-law."

Lightning ignored the comment. "Really? You haven't noticed how they get along so well, are usually together, laughing and-"

"He's your sister's fiancé!"

The sergeant slid past the infuriated Pulsian. "Vanille's not so unlike Serah, maybe he likes the similarities-"

Being tackled into the water wasn't ideal for Lightning. Of course, it crossed her mind that she was already soaked, there wasn't really much to lose with Fang bringing her down into the depths of the drainage pool. The woman lightly hit the bottom, her back brushing up against the closed valve that could at a press of a button, open and flush all the water down and back out to the ocean.

_Just have to the find the button. _Lightning thought, pushing Fang away from her. She crouched under water, looking around curiously. She swore some of the water almost held an iridescent shine, like an oil slick after the rains. She frowned. _Why would it be under water? Oil floats._

She broke the surface with a small gasp, turning to see Fang investigating the new pipes. "Which was ours?"

"It's-"

Fang waited for another minute, before she turned. "It's…?" The tribeswoman was alone, with a quiet pool before her. She frowned, scanning the dark room for any sign of the sergeant. "… Lightning?"


	16. Flan

**Flan**

"I think we're heading in circles." Hope sighed, collapsing onto his rear-end. Ultima had vanished long ago, so it had been left to the boy and Lightning's little sister to run from the authorities and try desperately to find a way to wake Hope up. Of course, due to them really being in the most contorted dream realm ever conceived, they had been jumping from place to place and just winging it.

"We're back in Bodhum…" Serah stated, leaning up against a wall for support, opposing the wide, open beach. "What was your first clue?"

"You know…" Hope smirked, admiring his boomerang for a moment. "You remind me of Light, when you're tired and losing patience."

Serah smiled a little, brushing some of her bangs out of her face. "Snow used to say that to me, when I was angry and being unreasonable..."

The boy looked at the girl curiously, his attention off his weapon. "What'd you do?"

"I didn't want to hang out with his friends, not every day at least." Serah looked a little put off. "I… It's not that I didn't like them, but some days I just wanted to be alone."

"So that made you like Light?"

The girl snickered, standing up straight so she could stretch. Hope looked away, a little blush playing on his cheeks.

"If she had a choice, Light would've arrested his friends, and him."

"Oh," Hope yawned, watching the sky begin to darken. It was strange, no matter where they went, the sun usually stayed consistent. Night was coming, and though he knew they had to keep moving… He was exhausted, and Serah looked like she needed a break as well. If they could find somewhere to rest, one could keep watch while the other rested.

_Sounds like a plan. _Hope thought, getting to his keep quickly. "Come on, we gotta find somewhere to hide and rest."

"Where?" Serah questioned, turning her head when she heard the echoing noise of fireworks. "The fireworks…"

"No," Hope shook his head. "They'll expect us to go there… To see people, who…" The boy seemed pained, looking away. "Who aren't here anymore, we can't give them that."

"I know where to go." Serah smiled, touching Hope's shoulder gently. "Follow me."

* * *

Lightning had never been quite this bewildered. She had felt something brush by her leg, but she had decided that it had been nothing more than debris the water had dragged in. She had opened her mouth to answer Fang when suddenly whatever that debris was, turned vicious and wrapped itself around her leg. Not only was that feeling wholly undesired, but in that second she went to yank her leg away, she was promptly pulled under water.

So now she was lost, in the pool. Her shoulder had smashed into the floor as whatever it was pulled her deeper, and the only thing preventing it from tugging her further in its direction was that Lightning had managed to scramble free. She had kicked at the invisible kidnapper, making it let go and allow her to struggle with finding up instead.

Up was evading her.

Her panicking mind came to the solution slower then she'd like, she exhaled, watching intently as she realized a rather dire fact.

Either up was now down, or she was upside down.

Regaining her composure, she emerged with a gasp, realizing only then that her lungs were burning from the time she spent under. Fang blinked, reaching as far as she could she grabbed the collar of Lightning's jacket and hauled over to the shallow ledge.

"Where…" Lightning gasped, scrambling up, she used Fang as a post. "The hell.." She choked, grateful for air. "Were you?"

"Up here." Fang frowned, "I didn't know you were down there!"

"How in hell did you not know?" The sergeant snarled, glaring daggers.

"I didn't see you!" The tribeswoman hissed back, pointing at the water accusingly. "All I noticed was the water was sort of glimmery, nothin' else."

Light didn't hesitate, she grabbed Fang's arm and began to pull her back in the direction of the control room. "Glimmery?"

"Aye, like it had a sorta mother-of-pearl shine to it," Fang tugged her arm free. "Light, I swear to you, I didn't know you were down there, thought you might've gone up there to check out the controls."

The rosy-haired woman sighed; she knew she was probably being a little harsh. It wasn't Fang's fault that the invisible thing had tugged her under water, hell Fang probably saved her from being tugged under again by hauling her sorry ass out of the water. Lightning gritted her teeth, two mistakes in the span of minutes, not exactly her best moment.

"Sorry I-" Lightning paused, rising up behind her friend was a near-invisible tentacle, only made noticable by the fact water drops were clinging to it. "Fang duck."

Having learnt that when one was given an under to dodge, one does it, immediately, Fang hit the floor, watching Lightning side step a savage strike by a iridescent, watery tail. It wasted no time, sliding back, gliding coolly over Fang's shoulder before it wrapped tightly around her tanned leg.

"Aw, fuc-" Fang's curse was cut off by herself being pulled under. She was saved, by another, far more familiar gloved hand reaching out and snatching her wrist.

The Gran Pulsian had effectively become the rope in a twisted version of tug-o-war. Lightning managed to pull her high enough so her head was no longer under water, though she had to twist herself in an unpleasant angle to even reach the air.

"I don't-" Fang was cut off by a wave of water, "-like yer friend!"

Lightning pulled harder, hearing her teammate hiss in pain.

"My wrist!" She snarled, "It's gonna detach!"

"I… can…" The sergeant ignored the complaint; the tribeswoman was halfway out now. "Fix it… later!"

Another tentacle lashed out, whipping at Lightning who bent over backwards to keep from smashing her. Fang's wrist of course, had paid the price, and something had cracked. Fang's howl of pain echoed in the chamber and down the pipes.

What echoed back was an explosion.

Which must've frightened whatever the monster was, because it abruptly let go of Fang and she went flying into Lightning.

Or on top of Lightning, who had been dodging the enemy's limb and, with her friend no longer acting as her anchor, had toppled straight over. Fang grumbled, in any other instance she would've been excited with her face resting in Lightning's chest, but her leg felt weird, her hip ached from the strain, her back felt like a chiropractor from hell had cracked it and her wrist was throbbing. Her good arm moved to lift herself up as she felt Lightning mumble incoherently and begin to shift.

"Fang…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know move-"

"Don't."

Fang blinked, she had lifted her head enough to look Light in the eyes, and she was staring at something apparently massive. She was going to look, when the sergeant's eyes flicked back to hers.

"Don't."

The tribeswoman's voice dropped into a whisper. "What is it?"

"Flan…"

"How big?"

"Tiny Fang," Lightning hissed back, narrowing her eyes. "I'm scared shitless by a creature I could step on."

"Right, stupid question." Fang admitted. "Why can't I move?"

"I think it's blind..."

"A blind Flan…"

"Well it's staring right at us and not attacking," Light growled, her eyes widening for a split-second. "Fang if your hand moves any farther up, I will catapult you into that thing."

Fang had shifted her weight onto the arm with the hurt wrist, giving her good arm and hand the freedom to move, slowly. She had originally reached back to try and grab her spear, but that lead to the realization that she had left it outside with Vanille and the others. The space had been cramped to begin with, and bringing the lance with her was impossible.

So, being completely opportunistic, her hand had somehow found its way to the edge of Light's skirt.

"Can't blame me," Fang snickered, "I'm about to die."

"I am not giving this creature the pleasure of ending you," Lightning grumbled, noting how Fang hand was still lingering. "That's reserved for me."

"Oh I welcome you to try..."

"Move your hand."

"Sweetie, you told me to stop moving it." Fang mocked, smirking. "So I'm doing as I'm told."

"Eden, why on Cocoon do you find _now _a good to harass me?"

"What better time is there?" The woman smiled coyly, emerald eyes sparkling from the fire burning in Lightning's. "Besides, in about three seconds, we'll be home free."

The sergeant raised an eyebrow. "How do you figure that?"

"Easy, that explosion was from Shiny, and I haven't told him to stop yet."

"What's taken him so long?"

"I imagine Vanille or Snow are trying to stop him, but if I'm in danger, he won't stop until he knows I'm safe."

Lightning was about to reply, until she stopped. The towering flan had moved closer, probably straining to hear their whispering. But that didn't matter to the woman at this moment, somehow, she had missed the fact that one very important detail on Fang had changed. She reached up, and brushed her shoulder, feeling the l'Cie brand tingle from her touch. The Pulsian looked over at her shoulder, not being able to summon up the words to the question now posed at her, she just gritted her teeth.

"Fang-"

The explosion rang out again, and the monster Fang still had yet to lay eyes upon flailed from the vibrations and sound, attacking the pipe they had entered from.

It was the first time Yun Fang had gladly avoided conversation with Lightning. She leapt up to her feet, watching as Lightning followed suit, and they both sprang for the stairs.

_Maybe she'll forget about it… _Fang thought, grimacing. _Well she was bound to notice at some point, at the end of all this, I am gonna turn to crystal…_


	17. Thunder

**Thunder**

This was entirely unacceptable.

Something had gone wrong, and his mistress was in danger. Worse of, was the large man known as 'Snow' and the petite redhead called 'Vanille' had tried to prevent him from reaching her. Shiny was displeased, they had only moved when the machine's reasoning had led to the stolen Orion pointing its cannon in Snow's face.

He had promptly moved, allowing Shiny to very another shot.

Shiny wasn't entirely sure he would've fired and killed the large l'Cie, but whatever the disturbance was rising in his computing cycles, made him think he would've. The machine supposed that it was as close to frustration a mechanical entity could feel. It had been wholly undesirable, making true logical decisions nearly impossible.

The feeling didn't leave, as even with shots he was doing, this was not the most immediate way of aiding his mistress and her companion.

Shiny stopped his assault, and thought everything through in a second. Turning, the massive mechanical monster moved towards Vanille.

"Uhhh, hi Shiny…" She gulped, showing obvious signs of distrust and nervousness.

Shiny gestured towards the pipe.

"I… Don't get it." Vanille admitted, taking a step back.

Snow frowned. "He wants you to go help Fang and Vanille."

"WHAT?" The girl yelped, scurrying from her place so she was hiding behind Snow. "Nuh uh, no way, you heard them earlier! There could be Flan!"

"If there is, then they need you." Snow nodded, turning to face his little friend. "Fang can't use magic to save her life, and Lightning probably can't."

"No!" She cried, glancing at the grate entrance nervously. "I'm useless with flan, they're… They… They'll try to eat me!"

"They'll eat Fang if you don't help." The man persisted. "You have magic, and you're ten times more powerful then you give yourself credit for. I've seen it." Snow reflected back to the wateraga spell. "You have to help them."

Vanille gulped as she turned to the narrow, small shaft she would have to crawl through. In her mind she was wondering if she could backpedal fast enough to avoid the creatures if they attacked her. She wanted to help Lightning and Fang, hell back in the ruin she had sworn to be like a soldier, to be strong and brave. But what had ensued had been a royal disaster, what if she messed up again? What if she hurt the two down there?

Shiny nudged her closer, humming quietly as encouragement.

_Goddess protect me, I need your strength to face my fears._

_

* * *

_

They had shut the massive metal door Lightning had forced opened minutes before, and now sat on the opposing side of the room, panting. The duo had discovered, in some sort of attempt to fight back, that Fang's ability with magic was completely linked with her emotions, and even then, the spells she managed to pump out were exceedingly weak against a foe that big.

Fang had just stopped and stared at the sheer size of the thing, it took up 70% of the room, and still more of it was oozing out of the pipes it had plugged. Since its initial sneak attack, it had gone from near-invisible to a milky appearance, with four arms, and a giant gaping mouth, all of which dripped its gelatine body back into the drainage pond. Its eyes were still clear though, perhaps having something to do with its blindness.

Lightning had been the one to pull Fang backwards, away from a blind swipe that would've creamed the woman in one hit.

"Maker," Fang breathed, looking up at the ceiling. "I thought the behemoth was bad."

Lightning was quiet, staring at the door with a gaze that was cool, and collected, much like the one she used to carry before this mess had begun.

"It's going to get through that door." The sergeant stated flatly.

_Why is her brand renewed? And why isn't it like the rest of ours?_

"Suppose we shouldn't have fired that guy eh?"

"We should've killed him and taken his key card." Lightning answered.

Fang chuckled a bit, cradling her wrist. "Eh, not to be a pest-"

"Too late for that."

The woman rolled her eyes. "Could you fix my wrist now?"

Light looked over at Fang's hand and then shifted. She was surprisingly gentle when she took the wounded limb, examining the wrist before she pressed on it. Fang hissed, and resisted the urge to yank it from the woman's grasp. The sergeant of course, was making sure she hadn't dislodged any of the tiny bones. Of course, there was no true way to make sure without using magic.

Only Lightning couldn't use magic anymore, she was an ordinary human.

"This is going to hurt." Lightning stated, giving Fang little warning before she popped her hand back into place.

Fang let out a loud curse, which was answered by a Flan's incoherent gurgling.

Light then pulled out of her satchel, a small bottle that was nearly empty of the red liquid supposed to be in it. She handed it to Fang.

"Drink it. It'll fix whatever I missed."

The last of the liquid was gone in a flash, and there was a sharp pop heard from Fang's wrist before she rolled it and cracked it.

"Much better."

"Fang…"

"Hm?"

Lightning didn't enjoy dancing around the topic, and seeing as they were trapped here, in some damn drainage control center, about to be consumed by a giant sewer flan, she saw no reason to avoid it.

"Why is your brand different?"

"I told you, I made a deal with the devil."

Lightning had turned back to facing the door. "So which devil did you shake the hand of?"

"It doesn't matter," Fang countered, not wanting to talk about it. "This is your topic of conversation choice?"

"Would 'hey Fang, we're about to die' be better?"

"How about 'Hey Fang, take me now, take me hard'?"

Lightning snorted, hanging her head. "I'll remember that for the next time."

"Oh, there's gonna be a next time!" Fang joked, watching a tiny about of gel behind to seep in, around the door. "That's inspiring, how'd you figure we'd get out of this?"

"How long do you figure they'll let Shiny blast away at the pipeline before the dynamic duo decides to do something?"

Fang snickered, nudging Lightning playfully. "Dynamic duo, sometimes, dumb and dumber would do it for them."

"Never thought I'd hear you call Vanille…" Lightning chose her next word carefully, not wanting to edge the tribeswoman on. "Daft..."

"Vanille is many, wonderful things." Fang reminisced, leaning back with her hands behind her head. "Brilliance, sadly, ain't one of her qualities."

There was a suddenly thunderous boom before the creature could've only let out a noise it considered a howl of pain. The duo instantly perked up, taking to their feet quickly as the substance that was once threatening to reach them retracted quickly. Fang was off first, wrenching the door sideways before she was skid-addling down the steps, with Lightning hot on her heels.

The flan was now facing a very frantic, very scared red-head. Vanille hadn't even bothered to reveal her staff; instead she stood up to her knees in water, her hair frazzled and her hands sparkling with electrical energy. The monster was swinging its arms wildly about, trying desperately to figure out where in the world that thunder spell had come from.

"Vanille?" Fang cried, and let out a string of curses as she was forced to roll into the water to avoid, not one, but two giant arms that came crashing down where she had been. Lightning let out a yelp and back-pedalled, skilfully making her way back up the stairs. The gelatine arms retracted, rising up into the air again before the came crashing down around the recovering Fang.

"Fang look out!" Vanille shrieked, electricity flying from her hands and crashing into the sewer creature. The electricity ran through its body and into the water, before it zapped both the mage and the stumbling warrior.

"Oh Maker that _stings_." Fang cursed, cutting off curse as the flan came at her again. She leapt, hands grasping at the grate in the ceiling. She smirked confidently as she swung her body up and planted herself up there, watching as the monsters arms splashed and threw water around down below her.

Lightning gave Fang one glance at her peculiar position before she noticed the Flan had turned. It now swung wildly where it thought Vanille was, and with the red-heads frightened screams, it was relatively easily to figure out where the magic-user was scrambling.

"Fang use a spell!"

Fang let one hand go of the grate she was clinging to and concentrated. Yellow wisps danced around her hand before tiny sparks began to sizzle and bounce away from the woman.

Lightning locked eyes with Vanille. "Jump!"

The spell flew forward, and zapped the flan in the back. Vanille jumped at the right moment, dodging he veins of electricity dancing in the pool.

_Why did I shout again? _Lightning frowned, leaping from the edge of the stairs to a risen platform a good couple of feet away. _That spell couldn't have stunned a damn fish, let alone Vanille! _

"Light, get Vanille!" Fang ordered, swinging from one ceiling grate to another. Magic danced around her hand again, this time packing more of a punch as Fang focused more of her energy usually reserved for physical confrontations into magic aura. The bolt shot out from her hand and struck the Flan hard enough to blast some of its body away and onto the walls.

Lightning had mimicked Fang, she hung from there ceiling, though not nearly as impressively as her Gran Pulsian friend. With both hands on the bar, she caught Vanille's shoulders with her feet and lifted her up.

It was like a very painful, very contorted version of weight-lifting. Something that Lightning was not built to do, though her legs possessed considerable strength, swinging her friend up, and out of water instantly made her thighs and abdomen feel the proverbial burn as Vanille yelped and flew upwards.

She hit the shallow water with a splash just as the thunder spell dissipate from the water.

"Vanille get out of the water." Lightning spoke calmly, gripping the bars tighter before she swung, and let go. Her feet landed nimbly on another, small, raised platform.

Vanille scrambled out and stood wobbly on a platform similar to Light's.

"Snow," Lightning shouted down the pipe. "We could really use _weapons _at this point in time!"

There was a clang before a bright red spear appeared. Light's hand had just grasped it when all of the Flan's limbs came down on the woman and the weapon. The spear went flying into the pool, and Lightning had just managed to hop back to a safe distance.

_Oh for the love of Eden,_ the sergeant gritted her teeth.

"Good going sunshine!"

"Shut up Fang."

"Guys don't argue you!"

The flan, admits all the arguing, had chosen that Lightning was the appropriate target to pursue. Blind throwing of limbs should've been easy for the sergeant to dodge, but usually her opponents had two arms, and weren't the size of a bloody fal'Cie. She nimbly rolled out of the way of one hand and then hi-jump over another before snapping her fingers.

One gravity-defying trick later, and she had cleared all but one hand. It came out of nowhere and wrapped its greasy self around the soldier. Lightning gasped, the flan was cool and her skin began to tingle as the gelatine monster's hand began to absorb her inwards.

"Shock it!" Lightning growled, fighting to keep her head above the Flan's surface. "Damn it, shock-"

Neither of her friends looked too happy with the idea. Fang was the first to begin to charge a spell though. Lightning's eyes narrowed as she was fully tugged into the creature, some sort of self-generated gravity dragging her towards where its stomach should be.

Vanille too, began to charge a spell.

This was going to hurt, Lightning noted dully, trying her best to stay instead the flailing arm. It was one thing to get hit by a spell when you were a l'Cie, but for all intensive purposes, she was human. She was normal; there was no special resistance or force that was going to help her. Hell, Hope wasn't even here to cast shell on her.

There were two, near simultaneous flashes that turned Lightning's vision white.


End file.
